Breaking the traditional route of completing engineering, pursuing a management degree and bagging a comfortable banking job, some follow their passion and want to use the MBA as a stepping stone to achieve dreams related to their personal interests. For the 26-year-old first year Post Graduate Programme student and composer/music producer Mithilesh Manohar Pathak from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Rohtak, the MBA will open doors to having his own music production house in the future.
Tell us about your background and how did your own music album happen.
I am originally from Nagpur. I completed my engineering from Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology in Nagpur. Immediately after finishing my degree in 2006, I joined Tata Motors. However after four years in the job, I decided to follow my passion for music and quit my job. You see that over the years, I had built a collection of eight songs. While I was at Tata Motors, one of my friends encouraged me to explore breaking into the music industry. So I decided to work on my music and quit my job. We were a team of three members who worked in Nagpur. I was the composer. After continuous work on the songs, we launched our album in January 2011.
Did you have any formal training in music?
Music is in my genes. It has come down to me from my mother’s side of the family. My grandfather was a great musician. However, it is my mother, Chitra Pathak, who is my true inspiration. She is a singer herself and s has always encouraged me to explore my musical side. I began my musical journey when I was in class X and my passion for the same has increased over the years. I am a dedicated musician. Composing and singing are my favourite things to do.
What was your music album all about?
It is called Garje and has a collection of eight devotional songs in Marathi. It is an independent album. My team includes Prashant Kulkarni, Rituraj Dole and myself. We roped in professional singers Hrishikesh Ranade who is a TVS Sa-re-ga-ma finalist and Ravindra Sathe to sing the songs.
How did you manage finances and publicity for the album?
The entire cost of producing the album, including the publicity was around Rs 1.5 lakhs. My friends and I bore half the cost and a private sponsor gave the rest. Since it was an independent album, we tried a different method of publicity. We put up stalls at various Tata Motors events and staged street plays in the nearby villages. We linked girl child education to our plays in order to promote the album.
What was the response to the album like?
Till date we have sold around 1,500 copies of our album. We priced the record at Rs 100 each and sold it through stores at Pune, Nagpur and Mumbai. In fact, our stock at some of the stores is almost over and we have been asked to provide more stock. In addition to the stores, we have some friends in the United States who put up stalls for us at the regular Maharashtra Mandal (an organisation of Maharashtrian expats) meetings. We have sold five albums at a global level as well that way. We also struck a deal with radio channels in Pune. Radio One, Big FM and Radio Mirchi have played songs from the album during their devotional hour each morning. In fact, Radio Mirchi even plays our songs in Mumbai.
So, why MBA?
Opening a music production house is my ultimate dream. However, starting a business is not a simple feat. At this point, I dont have any knowledge about the technical or financial aspects of running a business. I want to gather as much experience as I can before I invest my own money and start my own business. I believe that a formal management education is necessary to obtain specific knowledge about the path that I need to follow to attain my ultimate goal of starting a production house.
What are your plans immediately after completing your MBA degree?
After completing my management degree, I am planning to join the consulting industry, with a focus on small and medium level business consulting.
How would a consulting job help you reach your ultimate goal of building a music production house?
Starting a production house is an entrepreneurial venture for me. Working in the consulting industry will teach me how various business establishments tap markets, how they raise required funds and understand the issues that every business faces. I am also planning to take up projects in the service industry, which will help me understand how to work well with a team. In a similar manner I will take up projects with the media and advertising industry to learn the best ways to handle the press once I start my business.
Would joining a music production company not serve your purpose better?
I had been considering the option before joining the course at IIM Rohtak. However, there were two main reasons why I did not join a production house. Firstly, working with a production house makes it difficult to create an individual identity in the business. Secondly, the financial situation during early years of working in the music industry is not very secure, especially when compared to the financial backing a consulting job would provide. Although it would have probably helped me make a quicker contact base, I have already started building contacts through my album. I am in touch with distributors and other music production backstage people.
Will you take a break from music when you take up a management job?
Not at all. I will continue working on my music along with my job. My aim is to make my first steps towards creating an identity along with my job. While I will spend time promoting my album, I will also start work on a fresh batch of songs. As soon as I am able to complete a set of seven to eight songs, I will record another album. Beyond working on a private album, I am also planning to work on part-time projects from the entertainment industry. Currently also I am working on one such project, where I am writing songs for an album.
How do you plan on building an identity in the music industry?
My friends and I released our first album under our private banner. Whatever albums we release in the future will also be under the same banner. In due course of time, we want to start a music production house under the same banner. We have already taken the first steps for registering the banner into motion. However, such things take time.
What would be so great about your production house?
I am Maharashtrian and I want to revive Marathi art forms. Even Garje was based on a Marathi art form called Gondhal, which has become restricted to temples today. My production house will start off by trying to revive all the lost Marathi art forms and give them appropriate exposure in the music industry. Once I am able to obtain this aim, then my production house will take a step towards the Bollywood Industry.
How will you manage finances for building up a production house?
Learning how to manage finances is one of the major reasons that I have taken up an MBA degree. While Finance is taught as a subject, I will also be able to understand costing techniques and structures in a much better manner once I start working in a consulting job. While right now I have a vague idea about taking a loan and using private finance options, an MBA degree and a management job will help me build a specific financial strategy to build up my business. Also, I will be able to start collecting personal funds that will help me later on.
Do you think that the financial security of a cushy management job will lure you away from your dream?
I left a Rs 6.5 lakh package at Tata Motors to follow my passion for music. If there would have been the slightest chance of giving up my dream, I would not have taken the first step. Now that I have started the journey, I intend to follow it through.
How did you land up at IIM Rohtak?
I gave up offers from reputed colleges like the Schulich School of Business in Canada to become a part of IIM Rohtak. One of the major reasons was to stay back in India since I knew I could pursue my musical dream better if I was in my country. In addition, I knew I was not really giving up on anything because IIM is a big brand.
Does college schedule allow you to stay in touch with music?
I am a part of the recently formed college band. Even though our schedules are tight, we manage to take out time to practice religiously. In fact, we had participated in our first inter-college festival and had the time of our life.
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