Atul Kasbekar - Photographer and now Celebrity Manager

Meeting Atul Kasbekar was definitely the highlight of this feature on Celebrity Managers ! Quite the celebrity himself, as he walks into a coffee shop in Bandra, wearing a grey Abercrombie Tshirt and trousers. He lays his glares on the table, puts down his two phones, a Nokia and a Blackberry with a secret number, known only to 10-12 people. Sorry he’s late he says, the meeting with Deepika Padukone, took longer than he thought.
This chemical engineer turned ace fashion photographer, and now celebrity manager as well, is easily as charming as the stars and celebrities he represents. It’s been 20 years since he began fashion photography, shooting the likes of Sheetal Malhar and Yana Gupta, John Abraham and Katrina Kaif, creating Bollywood super stars and celebrity super models. Today he runs Bling, an entertainment company that represent s many of these models and stars, and a few sportsmen as well.

HOW HE CAME TO IT: As a photographer, Kasbekar sorely missed an agent figure who would step in to cover all the marketing and commercial aspects of a deal, so he could concentrate on the photography.” I think I've done alright for myself as a photographer I’m not complaining but I know I could have done 4-5 times better if I had an agent. So at Bling my job is to do what I wish I had as a creative person . No creative person should be negotiating their own deals, you’re a lousy negotiator for yourself, whoever you are.”


ONE DEAL TO REMEMBER: Creating a distinctive brand for actress Sonam Kapoor. This was post the film ‘Saawariya’. When Kapoor signed on with Bling, she was perceived as very Indian looking, “almost rustic”. The truth couldn’t be further, says Kasbekar. “She is actually 5 10 , 11, fabulous looking, great body, extremely pedigreed, incredibly read don’t know too many people who are better read- and probably has the most innate sense of fashion that I’ve seen. Izct’s not a stylist dressing her, it’s her. We just started to showcase that- next thing she was on magazine cover after magazine cover etc- within a year and half she is on every best dressed list justifiably so. So this is what we do and this is what we do really well”

SPORTS AS PART OF CELEBRITY: Bling handles Jonty Rhodes as well as Zaheer Khan. But sportsmen come with their own set of challenges. “Too many of them act like tomorrow is quicker than you thought and they want to make as much as they can right now. So building a brand becomes difficult, Kasbekar explains. With a minimum guarantee, you can’t say no to any endorsement, no matter what it is. Otherwise if say a ceiling fan offer came I would decline it and I would tell you by the way ceiling fan came its not something we should do- its not our fit, and there are some digestive pills which have come as well and there’s an underwear campaign which at this stage in your career you definitely shouldn’t be doing we’re saying no to that as well”. Instead many sportsmen end up doing way too many endorsements.

TYPICAL DAY (YESTERDAY) : I have twins a boy and a girl it was their 14th their birthday yesterday – so I said bye to them in the morning met my trainer worked out. At 10 am, I had a 2 hour meeting with some people who wanted to talk about a joint venture with my company. From there I rushed to Sonam Kapoor’s house for a meeting. From there, there was a meeting at Shahid Kapoor’s house. Sahil Shroff who is one of our clients, had a meeting with us after that on a movie he’s doing and 2 other projects which have come up where dates are clashing . Through that throughout that we wangled one of our girls who is in the fashion week to do an item no with Sanjay Dutt ,so we are trying to work that out, with various phone calls and a quick meeting on my way home. I reached home at 6.30 -7 . My son Arnan had recorded some Arsenal goals ( form the Champions league soccer) So we watched that and then went out to dinner.

WHAT IT TAKES TO SUCCEED IN THIS BUSINESS: it s a lot of hard work people. Keep your phone on at all times. Not reaching your agent is death- this is the core in Hollywood

BIGGEST CHALLENGE Being able to say it like it is .”It’s a dangerous business of expectation management if I paint a rosy picture for a star which is unrealistic- the only person who is going to suffer is me.”
“filmi people play stupid games I’d like to think that don’t wear a mask- what you see its is pretty much what you get- even with our stars I will respectfully but firmly tell them when I think there is something wrong- somebody was harrowing me we haven’t cracked x no of deals like we were supposed to and I was like x no of projects you’ve done – there has not even been one which has had a sort of luke warm reception at the box office what do you want me to do ?"

WHAT I LOVE: Being able to build a person as a brand “ I find the whole process incredibly intriguing and fascinating that eventually how many layers and facets you add and all of a sudden the net worth and the value of that person becomes something
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WHAT I WOULD CHANGE : You know I wish what happens with people who are important or famous is that when they need something now they need something now – very few of them will say 2 in the morning maybe I shouldn’t call now or its 2 in the afternoon where I am in new York clearly it will be daylight every else on the planet - it happens to me all the time

MONEY It all depends on the stars and celebrities you have. You normally make margins of 10-15% on stars and anywhere between 20-30% on models and lesser known stars.

To read full feature in Mint go to http://www.livemint.com/Articles/2010/10/10202944/Jerry-Maguire-anyone.html