HTLS 2023: Sushmita Sen reveals the reason she 'left films'

Sushmita said she has a theatrical film in the pipeline and two OTT projects. She added that she is itching to do a comedy. “But it has to be more than a comedy,” she added.

“This innings is about content. It's about doing things differently,” Sushmita said she is open to films, series and even YouTube short films.

Sushmita says the ‘Ted-Talk portion’ in Taali was a single take shot. “I actually broke down and actually got angry,” she said.

Sushmita Sen says that the scripts she got after Aarya were just other versions of Aarya. She added that stereotyping exists in OTT space too.

Sushmita revealed the reason she left movies. “I was tired of doing the same expressions. That was all I had to do. There was one good song and so on. I was looking for more. As I was getting older, I was not happy with that. I wanted more, I wanted to be student again. I want them to teach me and tell me you suck at this job, let me teach you how it is really done,” she said.

Sushmita speaks about the perks of OTT mentioning how people who watch Aarya for the first time still send her compliments. “I cannot fathom a female version of Michael Corleone film being made called Aarya which is funded with the gigantic production cost the OTT is made for,” she said.

Sushmita spoke about getting a heart attack earlier this year. “It happened so suddenly and so unexpectedly given that both my parents have heart conditions. I used to have two check ups in a year because I was aware that genetically I have that. My last check up was 6 month before the heart attack and it was shocking. Everything was okay, the stress test was okay, the echo was okay. It was a very sudden occurrence.”

Sushmita talks about shooting Aarya season 3 after her heart attack. “It was cathartic in a sense because all of the action that you see in the trailer was shot one month after my heart attack. So when Aarya gets shot, falls to the ground and she is gasping for air, in a crazy way it was like reel and real life, finally coming to a beautiful cathartic unison feeling. As dark as that sounds, I think it was a whole new beginning for me. Both personally and for Aarya on screen,” she said.

Sushmita was asked whether it sometimes becomes a forceful job for writers and directors to run a series for three seasons. She said that the pressure is on everyone in the team but in case of Aarya, it is based on Dutch series Penoza. They have enough skeletal matter for as many as five seasons.

Actor Sushmita Sen is our second speaker of the day. She is here to talk about the third season of her series Aarya and more. “Goosebumps, goosebumps!” she said about watching the new trailer for season 3.

Singh notes that founders today benefit from a more rapid learning trajectory. This is due to their ability to surround themselves with a wealth of talent.

“I think founders are able to surround themselves with good talent and that's a big strength for founders building today. But they are still susceptible to the same human flaws like any other person which is that you know their strength can be their weakness, their success can get to their heads and this is a normal thing.”

Singh reflects on the evolving role of founders in the Indian business landscape, examining their ambition, adaptability, and the human elements that continue to shape their journey. He observes a significant shift in founder ambition over the past two decades.

On the flip side, Singh highlights the demands placed on companies going public in India.

“When you file for an IPO, you have to demonstrate how you are going to use proceeds so there's a greater burden of proof there's a greater burden of quality when companies go public in India than in some other markets, and that makes for a healthy ecosystem in the post IPO market.”

Singh offers a unique perspective on the current state of startups in India, emphasizing the role of regulators and the high standards demanded for successful IPOs. He commends Indian regulators, particularly the Reserve Bank and SEBI, for their exceptional quality and world-class standards.

“Indian regulators are very high quality – when it comes to the Reserve Bank or SEBI, or other regulators – these are world-class regulators. What they have surprised me on over the last 18 years is they don't even let bubbles form, or they don't even let mistakes happen many of times. They are very proactive, preemptive almost, in being able to watch out for markets to sort of misbehave or for actors to misbehave.”

Shailendra Singh shares remarkable insights on the success of IPO exits in their portfolio, underlining the promising future of IPOs in India.

Despite being in the early stages, Shailendra Singh sees the Indian ecosystem as brimming with interesting startups. He anticipates that some of these companies will learn, adapt, and grow rapidly in the evolving AI landscape, showcasing India's potential to become a significant player in AI development.

“We will see AI play itself out over the next, probably, two decades… We are super early, in the Indian ecosystem, there are lots of interesting starts, and I think some of those companies will have to learn and evolve and grow quickly.”

Singh emphasizes the necessity for every company, particularly software companies, to have a well-defined AI strategy. He considers this an evolution of the concept that "data is the new oil."

“Every software company needs to have an AI strategy and it's actually an evolution of the same thing we have been seeing for the past 10-15 years where we have been saying ‘data is the new oil leveraging data’. You can make better decisions now. We are saying leveraging data, you can have autonomous decisions and intelligent decisions made by software even faster and even better than before.”

He sheds light on a recent development in the AI landscape. He notes the availability of high-quality open-source models, measuring AI algorithms by parameters and data points.

“And so, there is a little bit of a why now moment in AI where there is a tipping point, where AI applications are likely to become very mainstream. In fact, there will be no non-AI applications. All applications will try to use some form of AI or will try to be a more intelligent version of themselves quite likely.”

Singh delves into the evolving landscape of artificial intelligence (AI) in India, emphasizing its transformative impact. He begins by clarifying that AI is not a new concept. It's about utilizing data and algorithms to create self-learning capabilities that enable more intelligent applications and decision-making. The fundamental premise is that software with AI can make more intelligent decisions compared to software without AI.

Shailendra Singh emphasizes the evolution of problem-solving in the startup ecosystem. In the first generation of startups, he notes that companies focused on building simple apps and consumer internet propositions. However, in the emerging generation, startups are tackling complex problems, including science-related challenges, applying technology in innovative ways, and building infrastructure businesses.

Singh identifies a significant shift towards a deeper talent pool in the ecosystem. He highlights the presence of high-caliber leaders in various functional roles.

“We have nine full-time people who only focus on helping our companies strengthen leadership teams. So call it the human capital function, we have we have a project ongoing where we'll bring independent directors to boards of companies before they go public. The ecosystem now has enough maturity where the quality depth of talent of talent that has seen some scale exists.”

Singh discusses how the opportunity set has deepened over the years. With this transformation, companies that find success can address the market more rapidly.

“Three buckets of things have changed (over the years) – one, the opportunity set is far deeper and so what happens is when a company starts to succeed, they can address the market in a far more accelerated fashion than they could at any point in the in the past, which is both good and bad. It's good because your company can scale and grow at an unprecedented pace. It's bad because you know managing that type of rapid 5x 10x year on your growth is very chaotic."

Singh acknowledges the cyclical nature of the business world and the constant transitions between cycles. He notes that it's never as good or as bad as it may seem.

“I think the current environment is a gift for founders because, in the current environment, all founders are focused on solving very first principles problems they are focused on their customers. They are focused on building efficiently. They are not distracted by raising unnecessary capital.”

Singh notes that rebranding eliminated conflicts that arose when their investments in the region conflicted with those made by their US partners, freeing them to explore new opportunities without constraints.

"For us, the biggest benefit of this rebrand was that we now no longer have any kinds of things we cannot do because of this global conflict and so, really we were at a large scale where we were cannibalising ourselves in a way from a conflict perspective and so that's our biggest rational for the rebrand."

Singh says about five to six years ago, 10% of their business was focused on cross-investing. Now, 50% of their investments are in companies targeting global markets, emphasizing innovation.