Today we’d like to introduce you to Esha Tewari.
Esha, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I moved to the US from India in 2014. Since then life experiences have been nothing less than euphoric. What this country has to offer has only given me wings. Considering being an outsider and a woman, in less than four years, I have performed in multiple off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway shows in New York.
This led to an opportunity to get into film production and acting space with the Bollywood movie ‘Simran’ that was shot in the US. I was cast alongside one of the celebrated actresses of Bollywood and also assisted the production team in casting. The film was released across the world, the trailer of which received over 12 million plus views on YouTube. I am featured as Salma wearing a hijab. Getting this kind of exposure and recognition has been only encouraging. Since then my credits as an actress, producer, casting director include independent films such as ‘Here I Am’, ‘The Bullet Chronicles Lands End’, ‘The Situation’, and ‘Hiraeth’ with three others currently under production.
I have also on-boarded as a Partner with Film Festivals To Go, a New York-based film festivals marketing company to help independent filmmakers gain global exposure. I am highly excited about this venture. The journey from corporate to the entertainment world has been self-inspiring. While working in the corporate world for over 10 years with brands including Pepsi, Jaguar, IBM, BMW, Godiva, HSBC, TJ Maxx, Diesel, Mazda, and my journey in the entertainment world started a year after I met with a car accident in 2011 which put me behind everything. This near-death incident and experience changed my life forever. It gave me a perspective, and I decided to live life to the fullest.
I began following my heart in an attempt to fulfill my dreams beginning with participating in regional and national level beauty pageants which led me to win titles like Ms. India 2nd runner-up 2013 & Mrs. Beautiful Hair. Following which I began to get offers to feature in commercials. Since then I featured in over 40 TV commercials working with top brands, TV reality shows and theatre acting. I began to receive invitations from around the country, including top business and cultural organizations for judging events. The coveted Mr. India and Femm Miss North India organizations soon invited me to be on the jury for these pageants. These experiences have been only humbling.
I hold an M.B.A degree from Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam University in India and a certification in Phycology from the University of Toronto, Canada.
Has it been a smooth road?
Life, unfortunately, has never been so easy for women, as we so hear. But guess everybody has a defined place in this world. Challenges have never been easy beginning from working into the corporate world to the entertainment world.
If I talk about the corporate world, many organizations are improving their policies, but today as well there is salary discrimination between a woman & a man. Having worked in the HR of multinationals, I had direct exposure to its employee’s salary data and I never failed to raise these issues to fix the discrimination. This approach surely did bring about a change in few employees life.
Similarly, women artists in the entertainment space are usually paid less compared to their male counterpart. Getting the market salary has always been a challenge to a woman. On the other side, people have different opinions about women working in the entertainment industry for e.g., after the release of Simran, I visited India and met with one of my neighbor who congratulated me for the role – “It was great to see you on the silver screen with a superstar.
People do anything to reach to that point, and without any family connections in Bollywood – it’s really incredible to see that you made it”. Such is an impression of a woman. Entertainment world, like any other industry, is a highly skilled and technical space which requires sincere dedication and commitment to achieve success.
As an aspiring woman – it’s very hard to deal with such orthodox society biases. I got hitched at an early age with the person I love, and life has been only amazing. Later in life, I realized it’s even harder to establish oneself as a married actress because strange enough, marital status seems to be on the forefront than one’s skills.
I have been rejected from a TV show in India only because of my marital status because as per the show format they wanted only unmarried people to apply. Acting has nothing to do with your marital status. I rarely see a married new lead actor in a movie. In this time and age it makes one wonder, are we really progressing on this front?
When I see myself doing multiple projects, cracking auditions and being offered various types of roles today – I feel nothing can really stop you, if one continues to sharpen their skills and continue to do what we love.
I am a Film Producer, Casting Director, Actor & Indian classically trained singer. I am a Partner at FFTG (Film Festivals To Go) – a film festivals marketing company, which I spearhead to help independent filmmakers gain recognition in the global market. I know for a fact, every film has a market, and our mission at FFTG is to open up these markets for the filmmakers. We are currently working on four films (still counting) to take them into the global film festival circuit.
Since I moved to California, life has been just on the fast track. After coming here, I did 3 projects as an actor, 2 as Casting Director, 1 as Associate Producer and in pre-production for an upcoming TV series. With the current and upcoming projects, I believe 2018-19 seems to be a busy time and I am only grateful for each individual I happen to meet and projects I get associated with.
What sets me apart from others – ”I don’t talk work. I work!”
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
Film Festivals are an integral part of any film’s distribution strategy more so for the independent filmmakers. Festivals have exclusivity of content at the beginning of a film’s journey which would continue to be one of the main features. It’s an intricate platform to gain exposure and reach out to the world.
I think this will only strengthen in future. It would be interesting to see if independent festivals could also provide revenue sharing in the future with the filmmakers. Also, the way technology has shaken the entertainment industry in ways that it’s comparatively a linear process from the past in the way content is made, distributed and marketed, only time would tell about how festivals could partner in this process thus offering a wider space to a filmmaker.
Also due to the rise of OTT platforms with the likes of Netflix, Prime, Google Play, Hulu, etc., becoming more dominant, vast opportunities have opened up for actors, producers, casting directors and all in the industry to engage on various projects providing global exposure. It would be interesting to see how these platforms evolve in future impacting the industry.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.filmfestivalstogo.com/
- Email: [email protected]
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Facebook: https://www.
facebook.com/esha.t.pande -
Twitter: https://twitter.
com/eshatewari -
Instagram: https://www.
instagram.com/tewari_esha/
Image Credit:
Sunil Singh Rawat
INDTVUSA
Kevin Reber
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