5 Bollywood Movies Which Gives Hardcore Entrepreneurial Lessons!

Movies in India are a part of the culture. Though chiefly for entertainment purpose, sometimes, some movies leave a deep impression in you. There are a few films that teach you, you grow with it and try to imbibe them in your life. Being an entrepreneur, you are bound to look at things from a different perspective and this includes cinema as well. And since I have grown up watching Bollywood movies a lot I have found a few gems for myself.

Here are the 5 movies has taught me some entrepreneurial lessons in some or the other ways.

Guru

It is no guess that this movie was based on the life of India’s biggest self-made business tycoon-Dhirubhai Ambani. A perfect story of the rising, falling and rising up strong that takes us through the lifetime journey of the protagonist Gurukant Desai – the son of a school teacher.

It all starts with moving to Turkey to find a relevant employment in the form of a petroleum attendant.

It is funny that he agreed to marry the daughter of a rich businessman in return for dowry. But then, he smartly uses that money to set up his polyester business in Mumbai

How he drives this business to become one of the richest companies in the country and survives the challenges that lay ahead of him forms the rest of the story. The business ideals that Gurukant Desai had were something to cherish. For example, climax had him speaking his hear out with lines like “Jahaan last maarni thi wahan laat maari… Jahaan salaam karna tha wahan Salaam bhi kiya”

While Gurukant Desai’s character in the film may not teach you about business ethics, it does teach you to be ambitious, persevering and never call it quits. This story is for all the entrepreneurs who need to learn that business is never about ‘giving up’ or ‘failing hard’, it is all about ‘rising up strong’ and ‘fight back’.

Lesson:

Desai is sketched as a ruthless entrepreneur. The one who manipulates everyone and everything that comes in his way. But then, he can very well balance other things — he is confident about his professional ambitions that encourage viewers to believe in their dreams. 

Rocket Singh-Salesman of the year

Ranbir Kapoor starrer Rocket Singh (Year 2009) gives an outstanding message to the people who think that alma mater, a good academic score and a high degree can make one successful in business. While it does help you build contacts and provide the right kind of environment to nurture your ideas, but nothing can overpower the blend of smartness and honesty.

Same happens with Harpreet Singh Bedi (Ranbir Kapoor) who fights against all the odds with these virtues to excel in his dream venture. Our protagonist here is an average commerce graduate whose finds that his work and talent is undervalued in the organization he works for. Being labeled as the ‘Joker Sardar’, he surprises everyone when he quits the organization with four other employees to start a fictitious organization – ‘Rocket Sales Corporation’. The whole idea was to showcase his former boss how capable he is and that he does not require any ‘company’ to hold his hands. The end of the film is highly cathartic as we his former boss of accepting the defeat and acknowledge Singh’s success in being an entrepreneur.

What this film preaches is that the great leaders are born out of the most unusual circumstances.

Singh serves as a benchmark of a humble leader, the one who inspired the entire team to look ahead of the challenges. This is something that every entrepreneur must learn.

Lesson

Rocket Singh’s character makes you change your perspective towards failure. It teaches you to take failure and nasty remarks in your stride and let your actions speak louder than those words.

Band Baaja Baaraat

Pick any newbie entrepreneur who is into the business of wending management and chances are that this film will have its mark on them. It is a source of inspiration towards their pursuit of becoming a wedding planner(s).

Band Baaja Baarat tells us the story of two fresh graduates who are strangers but takes a leap of faith to start a wedding planning business with the name ‘Shaadi Mubarak’.

This film is a mix-bag for entrepreneurs as it offers inspiration, dreams, ambition, heartbreak, failure and plenty of other lessons. Surely there’s a lot to learn for an aspiring entrepreneur in this film.

Now for all the lessons, you learn from this film, the fundamental one is that you need to be a team player, no matter what! Blend it with the life outlook that makes you appreciate and acknowledge good work. And this will offer you the ability to think on your feet – something’s that rudimentary for entrepreneurs.

When the two founding partners part ways due to personal issues, the company suffers and they fail to get business for their individual firms. This phase teaches them the importance of keeping their personal and professional lives separate.

This film heavily relies on a single dominant idea: know your customer. Okay, this is more than the obligatory KYC. You have to get under the skin of each client to just be way too enough for them.

A romantic and passionate tale of Shruti (Anushka Sharma) and Bittoo Sharma (Ranveer Singh), teaches us a lot about the success and failure in the life of an entrepreneur. The same frequency of passion and wavelength of their thought process makes them come close and fall in love but too much practicality breaks them emotionally in such a way that breaking the partnership to becomes inevitable.

Lesson

A lot of practicality also kills

passion. Zeal to do anything – be it business or love, demands the same gravity.  

PadMan

PadMan beautifully describes how a business should not always have the motive to earn money, while it can be started for a good cause too. The amount of dedication and efforts put can only decide the fate of an entrepreneur.  

 

The recently released movie, PadMan (2018) is about a hillbilly Lakshmikant (Akshay Kumar) who is worried about his newlywed wife (Gayatri) sanitation during her menstruation so he works hard to use the formula to make low-cost sanitary pads, which eventually makes him rich. A wise man would not have said ‘Hard work pays’ just like that.

While a business teaches about making money, multiplying profits, and selling more; sometimes cause is bigger. Doing without expectations and chasing the idea to make it possible is something that only passionate ones can pursue. Padman tells exactly about how to stick to your passion and idea against all odds.

Lesson:

Perhaps a lesson form Mahabharata, that’s written in Bhagwad Geeta holds true here: “Do your Karma without worrying about the returns

Avtaar

Rajesh Khanna plays a lead role in the movie Avtaar wherein he is shown as a small time worker who loses everything only to gain something that he never thought of. The film tells a story of Avtaar Kishen who face struggles in life but just doesn’t give up. After getting ill-treated by his sons who marry rich daughters, Avtar Kishen and his Wife Radha (Shabana Azmi) leave the house.

The story of entrepreneurship is always about dedication, trusting your skills, and a strong determination. Not even the worst could stop the ignited flame of Avtar Kishen who lends money from Bawaji to start a small garage. And after that, there is no looking back, not even his one paralyzed hand and not even a shortage of money to buy equipment. There is a scene where the protagonist donates his blood illegally to get money and run his garage. But as it is said, fortune favors the brave, something of that sort happens with Avtaar Kishen. He creates an improvised carburetor that gives more mileage than the existing one and is noticed by the Bawaji, the investor who lends him money.

This leads to Bawaji giving him the capital for starting a new business of manufacturing such carburetor and that is when he rises up. The movie talks about not giving up on your determination even in your worst phase.

Lesson:

The skill set of an entrepreneur is their biggest asset and it is something that can yield a fortune. And definitely, it is the story of ruthless determination that proves it can move mountains.

I would not include Corporate, Race, Raees, Special 26, Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron, Badmash Company and plenty other similar films in the list for obvious reasons for not passing the righteous idea of business. But there are plenty of good films around in Bollywood that teach us business ethics, values, and morals. I too have nurtured the ideas, philosophy, and perspective that these and many other such movies have presented to shape me as an all-around entrepreneur.

About The Author

Shrijay is an entrepreneur with excellent business acumen. With a decade-long experience of working with some of the most disruptive eCommerce startups across the globe, Shrijay believes in team building, customer service, and execution to be the most critical processes for building a sustainable business. He currently leads a LegalTech company: LegalWiz.in which helps Startups and SMEs in India to easily comply with the law.

LegalWiz.in offers services for new company registration, trademark registration, legal document drafting, GST return filing, and more. LegalWiz.in makes it simple, affordable and transparent for small businesses to avail business professional services.