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Representing India Through His Lens – Krishnakant Mishra

Content curator and travel enthusiast Krishnakant Mishra takes the world of media by storm with thought-provoking content and creative projects. He takes us through the twists and turns of his career and how he found his true passion for filmmaking and travel.

As a youngster, Krishnakant recounts how his parents raised him with the hopes that he would join the medical field. After scoring an impressive score in Biology in the Maharashtra CET, Krishnakant believed he would get a medical seat in Mumbai. However, the tough competition and admission processes gave him a reality check. Having one engineering college on his list, he opted for that seat and graduated in a field he had no interest in.

He recalls these events as a dark phase because, like most Indian youth who went through years of studies, the dreadful moment arrived when the gradient doesn’t know what to do next. What kept him going was a group of excellent friends with individual interests. They spent the next few years exploring these interests and building skills. After graduating, Krishnakant got an offer in Hyderabad from TCS, but a day before joining, he rejected it because he was sure that it was not for him. Now, confused and stuck with his worried parents, Krishnakant found out about an opening at an advertising firm – Ogilvy. He found out that many rejected the job offer because it was a research job involving traveling to India’s dark, rural places. Having no other option, he accepted the offer.

This was the beginning of exhausting travels involving waking up at the crack of dawn, working all day, and coming face-to-face with dangerous situations. He recalls his clash with Naxalites as well as a bombing in the Northern parts of the country. But, he also says that these were the days he learned the most. He fell in love with traveling and learning about other cultures and people living completely different lives. He realized that this was the real India and decided that the world needed to know about it.In 3 years, he covered almost every rural India district with tons of footage of his travels. He made a short film and got into the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity – 2015 after impressing Ogilvy’s heads. “I sent them a container of cow dung and spices and told each of them that you would get a knock on the door and receive something. When they asked me why I sent this, I said that this cow dung is worth 750 billion, more than the GDP of Europe, and this is what I represent.”

Even though this achievement was huge, Krishnakant realized that Cannes’ Indian representatives were not enthusiastic about the culture. He decided that he wanted to work on more projects to show the world the uniqueness of India. He quit Ogilvy and started working on numerous projects, including a skill-exchange program called Eklok. It allowed foreign tourists to learn skills from local artisans and teach them something in return.

Later on, he joined Ogilvy again, getting a chance to set up his own department and continued to work on fun projects that dealt with India’s culture, and he even made it in the covers of Forbes magazine.

“I’m just an innocent guy who got rejected from medical school and fell in love with India,” says Krishnakant. Now, he continues to explore different avenues of the country for tourism and develop creative advertising solutions for clients. His journey is an inspiring one and is a testament to the fact that you should not settle for work that you are uninterested in. Time and hard work will help you.