Start Up And Go!

It is ironical that Karthik Kumar’s first foray into writing a book is titled ‘Don’t Startup’, when, 16 years ago, that is precisely what he and his best friend and batchmate, Sunil Vishnu did by starting Evam! “When we were writing our joint thesis on the ‘Viability of a Theatre/Drama-based Entertainment Entrepreneurship', we were told: ‘It has never been done’,” recalled Karthik.

- Nikhil Raghavan

Back in 2003, Karthik Kumar, aged 23, with an engineering degree and an MBA in brand management and marketing communications along with his close friend Sunil Vishnu were just continuing a journey that started while at MICA, where they were the founders of Sankalp, a theatre and amateur drama movement. Well, if they had any doubts whether an entertainment entrepreneurship could be ‘started up’, both Karthik and Vishnu went with their inner voice, a conviction at heart, and a determination to chart a new course for themselves in the realm of theatre, performing arts, and allied activities. Recalling the fledgling days of sustaining Evam Entertainment, Karthik said, “We were middle-class folks, we didn’t have inherited wealth, and we didn’t have parents who could support our crazy ideas. But we had determination. So, we told ourselves, that we will work, scrounge on expenses, save as much money as possible – all for two years, and then will pursue our dream.”

Two years later, with `3 lakh between them, they put in the seed capital of one lakh to kickstart their journey. Kartik wrote in his book, “We kept the remaining two lakhs for working capital, expenses, and others.” He said, “We wanted to give ourselves a chance. We wanted to make the journey memorable for ourselves. We didn’t want any regrets. We wanted to make all of it count.”

The fact that Evam set out to be an entrepreneurship in the management of live performing arts was also unique, because there was no such thing in India, and the closest known cousins to the species were ‘event management’ or ‘theatre as a hobby’.