Women engaged in creative fields like art, music, and literature are generally more creative than men. There is a famous quote by Maya Angelou that says, “You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” Relating the use of imagination and original ideas to create content, Shubhra Ghosh Dubey established Milky Liars with a vision to provide brands with the best stories and broadcasting solutions through video production.

Hailing from a Bengali family, Shubhra was always surrounded by artistic activities such as music, dance, sketching, typewriting, and shorthand writing. It was during her 10th grade that Shubhra joined a reputed institute to learn Graphic Design for Print Advertising and that inspired her to plan a career in a creative field. She also got a chance to work with a leading national newspaper as a freelance illustrator. At Women Entrepreneur, we celebrate women who are breaking barriers and setting new benchmarks. Here’s the highlight from our recent one on one interaction with Shubhra, where she shares with us her experiences and various lessons she learned as a women entrepreneur. Let’s hear from her.

Tell us about the prior industry experience that you bring to the table at Milky Liars.

After graduating from Delhi University, I completed my post-graduation in Advertising for Films and Television. Post this, I moved to Mumbai and started doing freelance jobs in the Ad film industry. The move also provided me with the opportunity to work on films such as Baghban and Babul as prop artists in the Art Direction department. I grew interested in film editing and eventually started working as an assistant editor under a Steenbeck editor. It was an obsolete technique but I wanted to learn the art of the linear film cutting process as I thought it would give me an insight into the decision-making process of cutting. All these industry experiences have given me a wide range of expertise in the field of film making and these traits have helped me in managing and directing the creative team in getting the desired output.

Introduce us to Milky Liars and its area of specialization. What are the responsibilities you shoulder as the Chief Creative Officer and Branded Content Manager at Milky Liars?

At Milky Liars, the approach to making branded content is realistic since we focus on the humanist aspect of the brand and its core value. The expression is by the sequence of concurrent actions; feelings and thoughts associated with the given behaviour patterns of the given users of the brand.

I have various roles at Milky Liars, from leading the research and post-production department to identifying brands and their needs to handling the creative team and developing contact and content briefs according to the editorial position of different channels. It is a role that truly requires multitasking.

 "At milky liars, we follow a strict methodology with the clients to limit last-minute creative differences"

What are some of the challenges that you face at Milky Liars and how did you overcome these roadblocks?

Creative people have different ways of looking at the world and it can be very challenging to find people to work with who share the same passion as you. Sometimes it can become difficult for employees to embrace a situation or dissociate themselves from it. We generally hire different people for different projects because every project needs different talents with specific skill sets.

Another challenging time was the pandemic since it resulted in less expenditure on media strategies and advertisements by the brands. We lost numerous projects, some got shelved and these resulted in monetary loss. However, we stayed patient and now things are getting back to normal. We have a revised strategy and are planning to associate in the field of media education. We have also associated with T-series in a media education project and also with Allen Career Institute.

What are some of the most important milestones that you have achieved during your professional journey?

The decision to start my own enterprise has been the biggest milestone since it was a difficult decision in an extremely competitive field of media. We have clients from PSUs and one of the films that we did for Electronic Corporation of India is being screened three times a day at Birla Planetarium, Hyderabad. For another project called GASWALA for All India HP Gas Distributors Association (AIHPGDA), Milky Liars was invited to screen the film at the world LPG forum, in Singapore. Apart from these, we have also produced independent projects such as ‘Dance of the Severed Head’, which is a feature-length documentary film. It was launched in MIPCOM, Cannes, and is being distributed by TVF International, one of the leading Factual Content Distributors in the world.

What advice will you give to young women who also aspire to foray into the media and entertainment industry? What is your success mantra?

I would advise them to complete their education and sharpen their skills according to their passion as it will help them stand out from the competition. We need to remember that everyone starts from somewhere so even if it’s a small start, just begin and everything will fall into place if you keep doing it consistently.

My success mantra is passion, patience, and hard work. I believe ‘Rejection is a Projection’ since it can be disheartening to not be able to work with a desired client but we need to understand that we cannot work with everyone.

Shubhra Ghosh Dubey,  Chief Creative Officer,  Milky Liars

Shubhra Ghosh Dubey has worked as a film editor and colorist before venturing in entrepreneurship. She understands the nuances of filmmaking which makes it easier for her to determine the creative vision of a brand and execute the project successfully.