User:OnlyforAmmay/sandbox

Introduction

Monisha Advani
Born	May 6, 1970 Bombay, Maharashtra, India
Occupation(s)	Producer, Founding Partner
Years active	1989-present
Relatives	Nikkhil Advani (brother)

Monisha Advani is a film producer from Mumbai, India. She is a co-founder and partner at Emmay Entertainment & Motion Pictures LLP, a production company she co-founded with her business partners Madhu Bhojwani and Nikkhil Advani.

Monisha Advani leads the company’s overall business strategy and growth. She also manages the succession planning at Emmay. Since its inception in 2011, Emmay Entertainment has grown to be one of India’s top five production houses, with several popular theatrical and OTT releases on all major platforms.

Early Life and Education

Advani was born and raised in Bombay, Maharashtra, India, into a Sindhi Hindu family. Her father worked in senior management positions with multinationals in the chemical and pharmaceuticals industry and her mother was an advertising professional. Her father is Sindhi and mother Maharashtrian.

She studied at Green Lawns High School, Breach Candy, and later went to the US to pursue a degree but dropped out to return to India and pursue entrepreneurship. Advani is the grandniece of late producer N. N. Sippy and second cousin of actor Tusshar Kapoor and producer Ekta Kapoor. Her brother Nikkhil Advani is a well-known film director and producer.

Career

Early Work

In 1989, Advani set up her first business in the student counselling segment, called Emmay Consultants, which focused on assisting students to find universities to study abroad. She was featured as Savvy Magazine’s Woman of the Month in 1992, and her work put her on the list of Persons to Watch For, Asiaweek, in 1993. However, although the business got off to a good start, she decided to move into the HR space with EmmayHR. “I was looking for something that had more longevity, and so along with my childhood friend Madhu Bhojwani, I decided to move into the HR space in 1996,” Advani says.

EmmayHR, A Randstad Company

Her foray into HR commenced when she co-founded EmmayHR in 1996 with her childhood friend Madhu Bhojwani. The company grew to become a leading HR & Recruitment entity in India. She was responsible for the strategic growth of the business, mentoring the company’s talent and spearheading the initiatives of the company’s consulting vertical. She grew the business to become one of the top-notch search and selection providers in India. In 2005, the company was acquired by Randstad Holdings NV. Notably, this was the Dutch giant’s first Asian acquisition. Advani served as Managing Director of Randstad India from 2005 to 2009.

Emmay Entertainment and Motion Pictures LLP

Advani believes there aren’t enough entrepreneurs in the media & entertainment business. “If there were, they would be putting back what they make into the business. We have the kind of consumer demand that would enable us to grow 100% YoY. That is where we, as a small company, are disrupting the market,” she has been quoted as saying. Advani made the novel decision of having an office space year-round, rather than maintaining a temporary one only for the duration of a production. The 53-year-old says, “This would simply grow our bank balance and not a company. Being an entrepreneur and being a businesswoman are two different things. We are entrepreneurs.”

Under her leadership as a Producer, Emmay Entertainment has created a roster of commercially and critically successful titles such as D-Day, Airlift, Batla House, Baazaar, P.O.W. – Bandhi Yudh Ke, Satyameva Jayate, Mumbai Diaries 26/11, The Empire and Rocket Boys, among others.

Investing Ventures

From April 2009, after her stint in HR, Advani began groundwork on her next venture — MyFirstCheque, which began as an experiment in 2010 with the aim of mentoring and investing in startups like OfferGrid and PoshVine. Although the fund has ceased investing, its existing investments are being nurtured for exits by the three seed investors. Advani continues to invest in startups in her personal capacity. Some of her investments include Jombay, Ping Digital, Decision Fuel, and BoomLive. She says, “The reason I invest in startups is because nobody invested in us.”

Personal Ventures

Monisha Advani is a regular speaker at leading international platforms such as the graduating MBA class of Darden Business School, ISB, and IITB among others. Her pet subjects are centered around understanding the current business landscape in India, evolving consumer patterns, effective management and most recently, the soft power of the entertainment industry.

Born and brought up in Mumbai, Advani credits her success to being a voracious reader. She is also a proficient cook and has developed a deep interest in food technology as a way of sustaining workforces. To this end, she is an advisor and mentor to the founders of the award-winning restaurants Masque and Sage & Saffron.

Her recent list of industry recognitions includes Outlook Business Woman of the Year (2018) and Inspiring Woman Entrepreneur by Business World (2019).

Monisha Advani has been acknowledged for her work by Jombay’s 1000 Women Leaders Program in THE LIST 2023.

Filmography

As Producer

Films

Year	Title	Director	Notes
2013	D-Day	Nikkhil Advani
2014	Shaadi Vaadi And All That	Kaashvi Nair
2015	Hero	Nikkhil Advani
	Katti Batti	Nikkhil Advani
2016	Airlift	Raja Krishna Menon
	Guddu Engineer	Nikkhil Advani	Short Film
2017	Lucknow Central	Ranjit Tiwari
2018	Satyameva Jayate	Milap Zaveri
	Baazaar	Gauravv K Chawla
2019	Batla House	Nikkhil Advani
	Marjaavaan	Milap Zaveri
2020	Indoo Ki Jawani	Abir Sengupta
	Unpaused	Nikkhil Advani	Anthology Film Released on Amazon Prime Video
2021	Sardar Ka Grandson	Kaashvie Nair	Released on Netflix
	Bell Bottom	Ranjit Tiwari
	Satyameva Jayate 2	Milap Zaveri
2023	Mrs Chatterjee Vs Norway	Ashima Chibber

Television\Web Series

Title	Year	Director	Platform
P.O.W. - Bandi Yuddh Ke	2016-2017	Nikkhil Advani Nikhil Gonsalves Kaashvi Nair Gauravv K. Chawla	Star Plus
The Mini Truck	2017	Kaashvi Nair Nikhil Gonsalves Karishma Kohli	YouTube
Hasmukh	2020	Nikhil Gonsalves	Netflix
Mumbai Diaries 26/11	2021	Nikkhil Advani Nikhil Gonsalves	Amazon Prime Video
The Empire	2021	Mitakshara Kumar	Disney Plus Hotstar
Kaun Banegi Shikharwati	2022	Gauravv K. Chawla Ananya Banerjee	ZEE5
Rocket Boys	2022-2023	Abhay Pannu	Sony LIV
Adhura	2023	Ananya Banerjee Gauravv K. Chawla	Amazon Prime Video
Freedom At Midnight	TBA	TBA	Sony LIV

Awards

Monisha Advani’s recent list of industry recognitions includes Outlook Business Woman of the Year (2018) and Inspiring Woman Entrepreneur by Business World (2019).