Being unidirectional makes one boring: Arijit Dutta

When did you take the decision to take up entrepreneurship? Why?

Though my family was always into business, I worked with GEC for four years due to the insistence of my mother on getting to know the office environment. I went through the process of secretarial work, finance,marketing as a management trainee and I understood what was required in an office environment, its rules and regulations. My Mother inspired and mentored me and of course I must acknowledge Uday Singh, who was the Managing Director of Columbia Tristar and Sony Pictures and he shaped my views on marketing of films. In fact we initiated marketing of films in India but the push, idea creations, the changes that we made, most of which came from him. As the only son in the family in my generation the responsibility fell on me to take forward the lineage and mantle of Priya Cinema and Piyali Films. I was all too aware of the great responsibility and heritage of the brand PRIYA and hence humbly took on my responsibilities.

How has been your entrepreneurial journey so far?

The journey has been a fabulous ride so far. It has been in my DNA to charter new territories, conquer new peaks look for fresh pastures and create new avenues. I work hard with a lot of passion and zeal and take decisions on what my heart beats for and mostly I am blessed with success. My latest venture Khairabera Eco adventure tourism at Purulia is something Eastern India has never seen before and this shall open new vistas in horizon of tourism industry in the East. The tourism venture is surely Eastern India's first ever. Being fond of wildlife, nature, visiting forests ( I keep travelling), this personal interest helped and the rest was part of work part of passion and part of interest.

Do you think you took the right decision? Explain.

Absolutely, as I am enjoying myself to the hilt. Very lucky are those who can actually mix business and pleasure and passion. I have dabbled in acting successfully and being a nature lover my latest foray into eco tourism is like living a dream. The biggest take away for me has been that I have enjoyed whatever I have done and lived up to every decision that I have taken as an entrepreneur. I have worked very hard to attain success as an entrepreneur and my mindset has remained positive and that of a winner. I have never been uni dimensional but always striven to be multifaceted.  Being uni dimensional makes one very boring and one then only restricts oneself to that aspect.

Now that you are a successful entrepreneur, what next? What are your future plans!

My full focus shall be on Eco Adventure Tourism which is already on an expansion mode within less than a year of its opening thanks to some fabulous response and feedback from our patrons. But there are lot of systemic inputs that have to be made and my focus shall remain there. The other aspect of hospitality industry that we are presently engaged in form of Burnt Garlic, Vault shall also take up a lot my future planning.  Also my immediate plans of acting too remain in my bucket list as some interesting offers are being discussed. Finally Priya, the iconic theatre, is always being modernized to keep pace with times and that too remains a priority.