Arunna Raj, Managing Director, Vanilla Sky Productions
Arunna Raj, Managing Director of “Vanilla Sky Productions”, is a dynamic woman Entrepreneur and a visionary whose foresight took her to chase her dreams. She is an M.Tech, a Software Engineer by profession; who resigned her Software job to follow her passion- ‘Music’. She found her own way to pursue her dreams and fortune smiled on her when she got admittance into A.R. Rahman’s KM Music Conservatory, Chennai; where she passionately studied Contemporary and World Music. Chennai being the Cinema hub, she got well-connected to many Filmmakers during the course of time and getting extremely fascinated by the Art of Filmmaking, she decided to establish her own production company in Bangalore.
“Being an Engineer, getting into a field that was alien to me, was quite a task. I didn’t know marketing tactics and converting them into sales seemed impossible. Having left my software job, I had a financial crunch but I didn’t give up”, reflects the passionate woman entrepreneur.
Arunna looks up to her uncle Mr. Pandiyan as her greatest inspiration. She shares,” Whatever I am today and whatever quality I possess, is taught by him.” She considers her uncle as her second father and the nucleus of her existence, whom she unfortunately lost due to Gallbladder Cancer. Losing him, hit her hard but she practices his teachings even today and wishes to continue to do so…
Reflecting upon her span of struggle in the industry, she admits that she started with nothing. Generating leads had been one of her primary challenges as initially she wasn’t getting projects in spite of having a good business structure. Even an influential branding wasn’t much of a help. She dedicated considerable time researching to find out that Bangalore had a potential market for Corporate Projects, which was not her cup of tea. Her efficient researching further ascertained that ‘Tamil Nadu’ has a great scope for Ad films; the reason being the hub of industries spanning from Food and Clothing Industry to Jewellery Industry. She figured out that Coimbatore being the Business Hub for Tamil Nadu, can be a favorable option to set up her venture but moving to a place where she had no support and knew none, was most challenging.
Having an idea about Cross Cut Road in Coimbatore, which had a lot of Jewellery stores and Clothing Stores; Arunna decided to walk into every store, to share her business cards and eventually had a word with a person in the jewellery store, who referred her about joining a popular Business Forum ‘BNI’. It was quite cumbersome for her as the forum demanded to attend business meetings once every week, which required her to travel 750kms from Bangalore to Coimbatore to and fro, for attending ‘a one hour meeting’.
Trusting her instincts, she got through this tedious journey every week. And BNI chapter- Champions, Coimbatore opened the doors for her, where she got a bunch of contacts, and many of them treat her as a Family Member today. Yes, it took a while for them to accept the Wonder Woman because her business had no branch in Coimbatore and she was referred as a ‘freelancer’. Most of them were skeptical for referring her any project but she never looked back, because for her, more than being opinionated, it was a 7 hour journey to reach her goal. “Over the time, some members came forward to help me set up my business in Coimbatore and their support was overwhelming”, recalls the dynamic entrepreneur, Arunna Raj. And slowly, she started getting leads and few of them got converted into sales.
Arunna, the Wonder Woman is a person who believes in smart work rather than hard work. “I’m a person with a ‘never give up’ attitude and believe that dreams come true. And if you have a dream, turn it into reality”, she asserts.
Awards
The continuous efforts and successful endeavors by Arunna Raj for 3 fruitful years, fetched her the prestigious award- “Wonder Woman Award for Dynamic Woman Entrepreneur, India Business Awards.
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