At BrilliantRead Media, we always strive to bring meaningful and powerful stories from India and around the world to empower and motivate our growing community. As part of this endeavour, we invited Bharati Mahapatra for an exclusive interview with us. She is an Entrepreneur, Leader, Legal Consultant, Producer, Dancer, Athlete, Mentor and Change Enabler. Bharati is the CEO at Xqbic Ventures Private Limited. Let’s learn more about her incredible journey, background, and advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Bharati:
We are aware of the enriching content you’re producing lately, can you please talk us through your background and your journey till now?
The journey started from my native place in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. I was born and brought up there. I have been quite a keen learner and a knowledge seeker since the beginning. I did my grads in Psychology and M.A. in Public Administration. Thereafter I completed my LLB from Pune University and 1-year Diploma in Fashion Law from NLU Mumbai. I also acquired a 1-year diploma in Market Research Analyst from NISM to add more to my skills.
I have worked in big corporates and got married in the meantime and then took a long break for bringing up my family. To be honest, it was too much to digest in a short span of time. I have been a professional legal consultant, specialised in Fashion Law and IPR since I completed my LLB.”
I managed to achieve this much quite successfully as I have always been an independent, self-driven and passionate woman. Lately, I’ve gotten into professional powerlifting as well to explore my inner abilities and strengths and it’s absolutely rejuvenating.
Apart from that, practising classical Odissi dance has been my interest since my younger days that signifies I’m an ardent follower of art & music. Due to this inclination towards art and creativity, I started exploring the genre of filmmaking and content creation. It took me 3-4 years of rigorous hard work to reach this point.
You can say it’s the second phase of my life which every woman goes through. But it all depends on you if you want to keep it the same or have a reincarnated life in the second phase. And I must say I have come back stronger, more determined and focused in all walks of life this time around.
What made you passionate about being a producer?
Well, being a producer is really empowering, especially if you are equipped with thought-provoking ideas. It makes me immensely capable to profess my ideas and materialize them into reality with an ample amount of resources that I’ve consolidated over time.
Being in the producer’s shoes is an exhilarating experience as it allows me to strive for creating and nurturing content that leaves an everlasting and positive impact on the viewers.
If you can bring about a vital change or a paradigm shift in society through the work you’re producing, then what else you can dream of?! I reckon nothing beats that sense of achievement.
‘Xqbic Ventures Pvt Ltd’ is such an interesting name, talk us through more about it please?
‘Xqbic Ventures’, as much as its name, the concepts of its projects are pretty well conceived and unique as well. Led by me with an extremely talented team, Xqbic Ventures adds value and meaning to the lives of the target audience. It aspires for perfection, quality and most essentially substance.
Xqbic is not confined to stereotyped or obsolete ideas, instead, we prefer diving into the depths of varied creative projects. Having produced short films, documentaries, we recently launched a music number “Zidd hai”. Touted as ‘the anthem of invincibles’, the motivational number is topping every radio station, garnering amazing responses, especially from young guns.
It’s creating all sorts of buzz all over social and print media for its music and the beautiful message the song envelopes within itself. See, Xqbic isn’t claiming to be the best in the business but Xqbic believes in producing & creating works that are the best in delivering quality and substance with recent being the documentary about “India’s Grand Festival: Durga Puja”, streaming on MX player.
It has always been our sole objective, i.e., to deliver a substantial message to the audience with strong & significant content with a flash of ingenious entertainment.
Who do you believe has been the biggest source of motivation in your daily life?
To be very honest, I don’t think that way. I have always believed in being the lone warrior and that’s how it should be for every other individual too. You can look up to achievers and can get inspired from your surroundings or myriad other sources and that’s absolutely alright in its truest sense as it helps in carving out your real personality but when it comes to getting all geared up, you must always rely on self-motivation as it is the only fuel which never gets depleted while being in abundance. It just needs reignition on regular intervals.
Not only in career but also being independent even in the case of getting motivated and not being clingy on some source for getting pepped up is a panacea to all your problems.
I would reiterate what I have written in my blog that:
A human being is so naive that he is unaware of the fact that motivation resides within him. It should come directly from the core of your soul.”
You just need to explore your soul thoroughly to find the source of motivation and stay upbeat about yourself for facing new challenges in life. I profess the same.
What are some of the strategies that you believe have helped you grow as a person?
As such, there is no well-defined booklet of strategies. Going by my experience, I would only suggest that follow your heart whenever you feel your thought process is clouded and you’re in complete doldrums. I have always been a person who relies on my heart more than following the mob mentality. I have always done things that made me feel the most gratified with a new and enriching experience.
Instead of following the footprints or advice of others and replicating their works, call out your soul and listen to what it is mumbling in your ears. Figure out what you’re passionate about as that is where you will invest yourself religiously and derive results.”
Thereafter, you will always have the most original ideas with instinctive knowledge about yourself. Moreover, keep setting your priorities in order and always zero in on one problem at a time while trying new things. I have always been mindful of my work-related priorities, crucial for keeping my self-discipline intact. Exhibit some courage while going through any phase of life and believe in the ability to take risks and venture into unfamiliar & uncomfortable zones to acquaint yourself with a different skillset, people and dimensions of life.
How do you manage to keep going despite the challenges? What drives you?
Nowadays, many of us are running after the recipe for quick success. The issue is that the approach has become result oriented now which distracts us from focussing on the quality of the process.
As a result, the success we achieve is quite short-lived and temporary. It’s a slow and tedious process and the one who doesn’t despise taking the hard yards in life reaches the zenith and stays there for a longer period of time. So, it’s never too late to start as I myself restarted after a 10-year break in 2019 just before the arrival of covid which proved to be an even more difficult phase for entrepreneurs.
Ups and downs are part & parcel of life which make you feel alive thereby testing your mettle, triggering your survival instinct and helping you develop the fightback attitude. People are shaped up by their past experiences and adverse circumstances. Those who get bogged down by those situations are forgotten but those who have the knack of taking those crises on their chin as challenges, make a huge difference in their lives.”
And as we all know, stagnant water gets contaminated but running water stays fresh. Similarly, the drive to keep going comes from my sheer desire to excel in life, master new skills and to keep adding something valuable to my personality. I aspire to be “the enriching experience” to those who come across me. Apart from that, setting boundaries around my professional and personal life did help me to a great extent. You ought to take some time out for self-care which I always do. For instance, attending a full-fledged spa session, blogging where I pour in all my deep thoughts & so on.
I have always been passionate about being a classical Odissi dancer as well. I’ve never let that inclination towards my dance fade away at any point in time.”
I have also been into fitness from quite a long time and have recently taken professional powerlifting as my another passion. In a way, these are the things which have always kept me fresh with rejuvenating energy, free from all the dust & rust. And yeah one more thing I would like to add is that always be grateful to God for what you’ve achieved at any point in your life no matter how little or huge it is.
What is it about your journey that makes it satisfying and exciting at the same time?
Well, it’s been a long journey. It was never a cakewalk for me to reach this productive and engaging stage of my life. But I would like to emphasize on the fact that success is not achieved overnight. At first, you have to take baby steps towards your immediate goal.
Only one step at a time, free from unnecessary complications. Keeping it simple, hustling day in and day out. Success is not a destination rather it’s a process to upgrade yourself into a better version of yourself with sheer hard work that has no other alternative. In my case, after what I conceive in the initial stages of a project and the end product that’s materialized matters the most.
If it’s garnering positive feedback & appreciation and proving to be a game changer in somebody’s life who gets inspired or relieved through my content, adding more value & colours to their lives, then that is what makes it a satisfying and exciting journey. From creating short movies to documentaries to music covers and getting conferred with *(mention your awards n tags names)*, and reaching new heights in powerlifting as well. All these milestones do make me feel satisfied but with a lot still there in the pipeline to come, it is surely as exciting as it could ever be. So yeah life has been treating me well of late.
In your opinion what are the keys to success that can prove to be helpful for young professionals wanting to have a successful career?
I, personally, feel keys to success work differently for every individual. But I reckon you can work on some basic key aspects of your life. The most important of them is to work on knowing yourself in & out and analysing your strengths & weaknesses thoroughly.
Try having a crystal clear mind, squashing all the doubts you have in your abilities and perceiving a clear picture of yourself.
A person with a clear mind is supposed to be extremely far-sighted. He becomes a visionary. Secondly, look out for inner happiness and gratitude. Half the battle is won there when you have a gratified heart. Try and focus on being a better person first, success will follow. Moreover, you need to stop being at battle with yourself.”
Accepting and loving yourself unconditionally should be the priority. Always be the one who stands for himself taking responsibility for his decisions and actions. Be consistent in your efforts and keep believing in your talent. Thirdly, always be a quick decision-maker who is keen to learn more with a positive attitude irrespective of age. And last but definitely not the least, try being an honest and upfront person with no filters and expectations.
You seem to be quite excited about your upcoming projects. Can you take us through your future plans?
Yeah, it’s quite an exciting time for me as a producer as we do have a lot of projects in the pipeline and we are actively working on it. Although, I can’t reveal much of it but I would like to tell you that I’ll be working on creating more realistic content keeping in mind all age groups. I believe meaningful content must transcend all age barriers.
My personal inclination is towards romance & comedy, so yeah, probably would explore more of that and at the same time produce music videos as well as feature films, both regional and Bollywood. We are in constant talks and negotiations with renowned OTT platforms for web series too and trust me it would be a cracker-jack of a deal with loads of enriching and exciting content on the table from our side.
Rest, I don’t ponder or fret over the future too much. I firmly believe in living up to the present moment and in the ongoing process to achieve our future goals. You can say I’m more of a ‘here & now’ person. I’m more concerned about the present as all we have is ‘now’ because the past can’t be altered and the future can’t be predicted but yes you can work tirelessly in the present to ensure your future is on the right track.
What is your message to our readers?
Well, the message is quite simple. Don’t overcomplicate things and follow the basics right. It means working extremely hard to taste success.
Give your 200% round-the-clock without any lacklustre efforts because the level of your efforts must match the enormity of your goals.
And as I have already emphasized repeatedly that ‘the process’ is underrated, it’s the most crucial cog in the wheel. You just need to be consistent, focused and loyal more towards the process, keeping an eye on the target and the rest will be taken care of.
Luck plays a meagre part in deciding our future, the majority of everything else is in our own hands. And as we all know God helps those who help themselves. Therefore, keep hustling!
BrilliantRead is committed to bringing stories from the startup ecosystem, stories that reshape our perspective, add value to our community and be a constant source of motivation not just for our community but also for the whole ecosystem of entrepreneurs and aspiring individuals.
Note: If you have a similar story to share with our audience and would like to be featured on our online magazine, then please write to us at [email protected], we will review your story and extend an invitation to feature if it is worth publishing.
