My Story
Hey! My name’s Sarang.
I have always had a passion for reading and binge-watching movies since I was 10 years old.
After watching Jurassic Park, I thought dinosaurs still existed somewhere on a remote island. And it took a couple of days for my parents to convince me that it was just a movie.
That’s when I realized the power of films and stories, the impact that they have on our minds.
Now..how did I end up with a blog on filmmaking and advertising?
So, here’s my story..
I’m from Pune, India. I have been living in this city for the last 33+ years. And I love it (despite the immense traffic)
I was always energetic, active and ever at home at all. Never studied much. Neither in school nor in kindergarten.
But my parents always encouraged me to read. I was an avid reader (still am).
College Days..
Back in college, my major was Electronics & Telecommunication Engineering. At that time, I didn’t think engineering would be extremely stressful for me later on.
I chose it because I thought I’d be able to create something different (like a robot or those fancy electronic items).
That required countless nights of study and preparation for exams (I skipped this part most of the time).
And that’s why I could never recall those complex electronic concepts in the exams no matter how much I tried to understand those theorems.
I was highly imaginative (that’s me being creative there!) but not studious enough at all to earn that engineering degree.
I was trying to get out of the constant examination process as soon as I could.
Getting Lost..
Electronics wasn’t for me. I was getting lost in thoughts like what I would do if I didn’t graduate. I couldn’t give up.
By 2014, most of my friends had graduated and either had a decent job, a car, or even a house loan.
I was 25 then and still in my 3rd year. I couldn’t even get those passing grades to get my graduation over with.
And this is what I had..
- A four-month experience in a small UPS manufacturing company.
- No money.
- Good management skills (which is what I thought at the time)
With two more years to go..I was frustrated with life. I didn’t know how to use my intelligence and imagination at all. I still didn’t know what I was good at.
Meanwhile..
I had started reading scripts of famous movies and directors I knew about. I used to write short stories and turn them into scripts in the hope of selling them someday.
I thought of applying to some screenwriting contests in the US. But that too requires money. I realized that just applying to one contest won’t do me any good.
And I didn’t have $400 to apply to at least five contests. So I dropped the whole idea.
I read some articles online (whichever I could find on TV advertising) and started writing TV commercials.
I already had spent months on camera angles and analyzing scripts.
Apart from college assignments, I wrote around 20 commercials on products that come on TV like shoes, mutual funds, mobiles, headphones.
And then came another gap year.
But something clicked in my mind..
And I wasn’t going to give up on my studies either.
This time I thought, “Why don’t I use this time to try and sell these scripts!”.
So, I made a list of 22 advertising agencies in my city (Pune).
I called them up, went to their offices, and met some people. Most of the time, meetings were rescheduled. In spite of wanting just 5 minutes of the agency owner’s time, I had to wait for hours in the reception.
After all, which agency owner or producer would want to meet a random guy who says, “Sir, I have written these commercials, would you like to have a look?!”
With no exposure to the advertising world, how it works, and no family background in advertising either, now I was getting the hang of the industry.
I wrote 7 scripts and gave them off to two producers in order to get my name in there. I knew I wasn’t going to get anything off it.
People were liking my scripts but weren’t ready to buy them..
However, they gave me some feedback and appreciated my writing skills, slogans, and follow-ups (I was absolutely relentless but polite in calling them).
One director told me to shift to Mumbai, where all the action happens. He was right. Mumbai is like the LA of India in the film and advertising sectors. However, shifting was not possible for me.
Another guy told me to get a bachelor’s in scriptwriting from the US.
But, I kept on writing about more and more products and keeping the scripts for myself.
I now have 40+ TV and YouTube commercials.
Graduation..Finally!
With a little bit of confidence at 28, I graduated with First Class. My parents were delighted and heaved a sigh of relief.
I was just glad I finished school. I wasn’t going to join an engineering firm. Who’d want me anyway!
I got my first official job at Amazon as a customer service agent.
That’s when I was exposed to Digital Marketing!
I loved it! I knew right then and there that this would be my career, where I can use my creativity along with my writing skills in various ways.
I married my wonderful girlfriend in 2018, who had supported me tremendously for the last 3 years.
Later that same year, I was exposed to the vast world of self-publishing in 2018, when I worked at a company that made eBooks for children.
My past experience on learning advertisement scripts, I knew that there was almost no content on the web on the exact format of screenwriting for commercials. I had to learn it on my own from various sources.
Self Publishing an eBook..
So…in Oct 2019, I published an eBook on Kindle on Writing TV Commercials. I had close to 300 sales in the first month.
However, recently I published an in-depth version of the eBook in the form of an Ultimate Guide for Writing Tv & YouTube Commercials now.
The eBook is outdated but still available here.
But more than the sales, self-publishing was like a nitro booster for me. And I wanted to learn even more on how to promote content.
So, I started learning about content marketing techniques, WordPress, and followed various self-made bloggers for a side income.
Game Changer: The Covid-19 Pandemic times…
As I had lost my job in the first wave of the pandemic in 2020, I immediately took this opportunity to start my blog on screenwriting, advertising, and all the knowledge I had about films.
Since then, I have constantly been upgrading myself, experimenting with marketing tactics.
Currently, I work at a company that makes themes and plugins for WordPress. I handle their theme’s marketing strategy.
I have worked 80+ hours a week from April ‘20 to Dec ‘20 on my blog.
I’d say it helped me the most in landing this day job as a content manager.
My learning’s so far..
To sum it up, this is what I have learned so far as a blogger, scriptwriter and my work experience as a consultant with a start-up.
- Content, High-quality Backlinks & Presentation are the 3 most important aspects that matter in order to grow traffic.
- Being Relentless: Never give up on your passion. There’s always a way if you have the will to get through anything in life.
- Life is about taking the blows, learning from mistakes, and improvising to move forward towards a goal.
My knowledge so far about advertising, films, marketing, and writing scripts has truly helped me grow as a person.
I learned to manage people and handle challenging situations comfortably.
I have since assisted some of my friends and colleagues to come out of difficult situations, failure, and frustration.
Well..that was about me…so far.
I’ll be adding more here as I grow my blog to thousands of readers, and make a full-time income from blogging.
I’d also like to start my Ad agency within the next 4 years.
Meanwhile, If you’d like to have a chat with me about your life’s goals, passions, questions on marketing, please feel free to contact me.
I’m also on LinkedIn and Twitter. I respond to every message.
Happy Blogging!