My Team Can Wear What They Like, And Swear At Each Other, And Sometimes Even At Me!

My Team Can Wear What They Like, And Swear At Each Other, And Sometimes Even At Me!

The Way I Work | Jatin Varma, Twenty Onwards Media

Jatin Varma’s professional style is as unique as his birthmark—a black spot on his right eye that makes him look like a pirate. While the 27-year-old does not plunder the seas, he sure does come up with cunning ways to get his team of college graduates, still grappling with the ways of office life, to ideate. Little wonder then that the corridors of Twenty Onwards Media, Varma’s four-year-old media house, is full of energy. It is, after all, filled with 20 somethings who walk around in casual clothes and swear liberally. Varma doesn’t mind the goofing around as long as his employees are punctual. That doesn’t happen, much to his dismay—he has a team of habitual offenders. On a typical day, you’ll find him writing e-mails to his Random (magazine) fans, shouting at his crew for trooping in late, and then asking them to make up for it by coming up with brilliant one-liners.

My alarm clock goes off sharp at eight every morning. I hear it, turn off the snooze button and go right back to sleep. That’s usually because I work late into the night and because I am an insomniac. I cannot seem to fall asleep before 3am. Luckily for me, I have company. My wife works in an international bank and she is usually up working late into the night also. Her clients operate in different time zones.

Once I am awake, I like to pep myself up with a hot cup of coffee or chai. I do not bother exercising—just that word tires me—or eating muesli with curd, the very thought of which churns my stomach. I am not a health freak and I am damn proud of that. Recently, however, I have started eating fruits to stay healthy. The idea was not mine, as you can guess. I got married a few months ago. Before I tied the knot I used to live with my parents and younger brother in south Delhi. I still live in the same neighbourhood, only a couple of blocks away. It’s basically the same life—only that instead of my parents, I report to my wife.

As soon as I am done with breakfast—usually something between eggs and paranthas—I head to office. The commute to Naraina Vihar, in west Delhi, takes 30 minutes. I love listening to music in my car. It helps me relax and prepare for work. My pick is either Indian classical music or the latest Bollywood chartbusters. I also try to catch the Matchless Music Hour which airs on AIR Rainbow FM at 9am. I try to make the most of this drive. I know the day ahead will be crazy, so I savour every bit of this me-time.

I am, invariably, the first person to reach office. My secretary—also the guard—makes it on time. The minute I enter, the first thing I do is to ask the guard to call up every one in my staff and make sure they get to work on time.

Officially, our working hours are from 10am to 6pm but no one quite shows up before 11.30am. No one leaves at 6pm either. I guess this is how the media industry works, and we are no exceptions. My four-year-old “idea house” does almost everything—from writing jingles for ads to making corporate films to producing shows. These days we are producing a new show on Channel V called Date My Folks. The show requires someone to go out with their prospective date’s parents before their actual date. The second season of another popular show called LoveNet will also be aired soon. The show exposes naughty little secrets of a young couple who are dating online. Since shoots for these go on till late, it’s pretty hard to be in office on time. Besides that, though, there really is no other excuse for not being punctual.

By 11.30am, the office begins to look more like an office with people trooping in. I, of course, make it a point to let them know that I am an unhappy boss. If a person comes in later than 12pm, I ensure that he or she gets paid half a day’s salary. I can be merciless in such things. I don’t care if somebody has worked till 10pm or late into the night. If anybody is late for three consecutive days, they are marked absent. The irony is that despite all of this, the story doesn’t change much.

The next thing I focus on is my inbox. I am always connected to work through my BlackBerry, so opening my mailbox is not a ritual. My inbox generally consists of updates from heads of productions, events of the day, the basic to-do list, media requests, resumes of people who want to be a part of the organisation, and e-mails from fans. Sometime in February, we had organised India’s first-ever comic convention—Comic Con—in New Delhi. The event ran for two days at Dilli Haat and attracted 17,000 visitors. People just loved it. I got around 300 e-mails from my fans. They were super kicked about the convention; and so was I, about the response. I made sure that I personally e-mailed each one of them back. My hands were quivering at the end of the hundredth e-mail but I would not have allowed anyone else to respond to those mails for me. That is the way I work. I like to be involved in everything. I like doing things myself.

When I started out, things were not like this. I did not have a background in the media industry, and that did not help. I decided to hire a few people who knew the ropes of production—writing—and learnt from them. I may have been their “boss”, but I was also a diligent learner. There is nothing that beats hands-on experience. I am always open to learning—be it from colleagues or from past experiences.

My first stint in the media industry was when I was 22. After graduating in economics from the University of Washington, Seattle, I came back to India and started my first publication—a magazine called Traffic. As the name suggests, it was a mishmash of everything under the sky. Right from politics to humour to social issues; we explored it all. Unfortunately, we didn’t find any takers. Nothing can describe the anxiety I felt in those days, not only because we had to stop production in less than six months, but also because the livelihoods of 10 people depended on it. But I did not give up and we started all over. The second time round, it was not all that bad. One of the main reasons for Traffic not working was my inability to figure out the distribution, marketing and target group of the magazine. To avoid falling into the same trap again, I hired people who knew the nuts and bolts of the media industry. That decision has paid off, and things are going better than ever. From an initial investment of 5 lakh, Twenty Onwards Media has grown to a 4-crore company in four-odd years. We have also bagged some major deals from UTV Bindaas and Channel V. So, I figure we are headed down the right path this time.

I still struggle with a few things. I feel HR is the most complex function in any organisation. It’s very difficult to handle people and their attitudes. Things are tougher for me, because I have so much young blood in my office. I work only with interns and fresh-out-of-college kids. The great thing is that they are full of energy, spunk and fresh ideas, but the difficult part is trying to tame them. This is why I’ve made sure our office culture is very informal and cool. My team can wear what they like, and say what they feel. They can swear at each other, and sometimes even at me. In our office, the banter is such that people are always on the lookout, for the next best comeback or quip. I might be strict about punctuality and honesty but I always encourage my colleagues to be themselves, speak their mind and come up with suggestions.

None of this is easy to manage, of course. You have to be really careful when you handle young kids. Many graduates are shy and reserved, and we need to work hard to break the ice. I have an interesting way to do that. Each person who has been at the receiving end of my morning ire is asked to come up with a smarter retort than the one I came up with. This not only helps build comfort, but also leads to some amazing ideas. These retorts often make their way into our dialogues and jingles. I am also stingy with money. I make sure we constantly focus on the economics. Like any other entrepreneur, I like to cut costs. Believe it or not, I haven’t taken even a month’s salary home. I just use my wife’s money.

Lunch lasts for an hour or so, after which begins my real work—creating my brand’s properties. I may produce TV shows for channels or write jingles, but at the end of the day I need to create enough properties and assets that are mine. Recently, I published a graphic novel—The Itch That You Can’t Scratch—under Pop Culture Publication. We have a deal where we own the artwork and the writer owns the copyright to the text. This is our way of owning a property, and at the same time making the sure the writer or the artist also has a stake in it. Of course, royalties to the author—Sumit Kumar—is an added advantage, and this model should help us partner with others.

Like Pop Culture Publication, we publish the magazine, Random, an Indian take on the famous Mad. In future, I plan to launch my line of merchandise—from T-shirts to mugs with smart and funny one-liners. At this moment, however, there is just one aim—increasing my clientele.

I usually try to wind up between 7 and 8pm. I make it a point to get home and spend some time with my wife; we have dinner together. For me, a good day should always end with a good meal. I don’t care if it’s vegetarian or non-vegetarian as long as it’s sumptuous.

After dinner, I settle down on my couch with whichever graphic novel I have been able to get my hands on. I read to unwind. Right now, I am reading the entire World Comics India collection. There will be days when I will be lying awake thinking about things in my company, its mission and future. Sometime around 2.30am, the thoughts become fuzzy and I drift off to sleep.

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