Intaglio Day-3 Report

(11^th January 2009)

Reverberations: Mr. Joy Bhattacharya

Mr. Joy Bhattacharya, ace quizzer, quiz master, television show producer and Director of Kolkata Knight Riders, was in IIM Calcutta to share his sports management and entertainment experiences with eager students as a part of IIM Calcutta’s annual international B-School meet Intaglio 2009. Mr. Bhattacharya started off with a couple of funny anecdotes to put a packed audience at ease and the opened the house for questioning, ever so adept and sensing a crowd’s need.

Mr. Bhattacharya answered questions on the operations of Kolkata Knight Riders and IPL in general. On whether T-20 was killing of classical cricket and harming cricket’s status as a national rather than regional identity, Mr. Bhattacharya stressed that all forms of cricket should be played for fun, implying that test cricket was not an examination to be taken so seriously, apart from replying to thunderous applause that he felt that Indian fans were mature enough to wear different hats while watching India and IPL and that there would be no conflict of interest.

Going deeper into the operations of KKR and IPL, Mr. Bhattacharya spoke about KKR’s proposed “˜A’ and academy teams to develop a talent pipeline, narrated an anecdote of an Orissa kid not on Ranji reckoning named Natraj Bohra being offered a KKR contract breaking through the traditional nepotistic barriers and pinned down KKR’s poor performance in the inaugural edition of T-20 to Chris Gayle’s non appearance, Shoaib Akthar’s injury and Brad Hodge’s Australia call up, apart from the departures of McCullum and Ponting. Mr. Bhattacharya felt that KKR had erred in not going for an extra young Indian batsman and was left without a strong top order batting lineup.

Claiming that KKR were the only team to make a profit from the IPL, Mr. Bhattacharya stressed on the fact that while a tug of war between marketable and performing players will always exist, KKR did not face it because of the fact that Shah Rukh Khan himself had more than enough marketing potential to take care of that side of the pull.

Mr. Bhattacharya commented on a few touchy topics, like the media’s wrong propaganda on Shoiab arriving in India with syringes and noted when addressing a large group of IIM students that while Charu Sharma’s attempt to run a team according to classic management principles might have failed, it would not have been because of Rahul Dravid’s inability to understand the system. Mr. Bhattacharya chose to lay the blame squarely on the doors of Mr. Vijay Mallaya’s ego and felt that Dravid was one of the most well-read men in cricket and certainly amongst the keenest students of the game.

Looking back into his career, Mr. Bhattacharya recalled the introduction of Samsung Super Selector when he was working for ESPNStar. He recollected how the idea of a capped fantasy game went on to become during periods the most popular fantasy game in the world and how the game’s progress was impeded by frequent server crashes caused by a British company being unable to gauge the scale of its popularity in India. Mr. Bhattacharya recalled a hilarious incident involving Bappi Lahiri’s mixture of Hindi and Bengali words for song while composing the song for the Indian Football League and also found time to take a potshot at Himesh Reshamaiyya, much to the general delight of the public! Mr. Bhattacharya interestingly pointed out the beginning of Mastermind series, Indian Football League and the KKR franchise as the proudest moments of his distinguished career.

Looking into the future, Mr. Bhattacharya boldly claimed that nobody at KKR was secure, including Sourav Ganguly, and that it was the fans and the franchise which mattered more than any one individual. He icily put down questions on match fixing in IPL, remarking that while cricketers and administrators might be greedy, they were not stupid enough to kill the golden goose. Mr. Bhattacharya felt that IPL had not even scratched the tip of the iceberg, with there being limitless potential for organized private sport in a country like India. He predicted a similar enterprise revolutionizing hockey within the next 5 years and football within the next 10.

While the watching public just could not get enough of the indomitable Joy Bhattacharya, time was almost up and he concluded by gazing into his crystal ball and claiming that the IPL would go on to become the “chicken tikka masala” of Indian sport, as ubiquitous and popular. The applause lasted for a full five minutes.

Quizzical

The Open Quiz at Intaglio is one of the most respected forms of quizzing in this part of the nation. Attracting the best from across the country and from all age brackets, it always promises to be a delicious cornucopia for the quizzing connoisseur. This year’s edition featured Mr. Joy Bhattacharya, CEO of Kolkata Knight Riders, as the Quiz Master. The preliminary round was met with a very highly enthusiastic response, with the auditorium packed completely with participants. Six teams made it to the finals. Among the finalists were quizzers such as Mr. Charanpreet Singh (Associate Dean, Praxis Business School), Ms. Jayashree Mohanka (Vice President, Anand Bazaar Patrika) and Prof. Gautam Ghosh (Professor in Marketing, International School of Business & Media). Ms. Mohanka and Prof. Ghosh are both alumni of IIMC. Prof. Ghosh is one of the most illustrious quizzers from this part of the country, having been the second runner-up in the BBC Master Mind Quiz in 1998 and winner in various quizzers since his college days. Students from IIT Kharagpur and IIM Calcutta too qualified for the finals.

The quiz, as expected, maintained its standards. It was excellently complemented by Mr. Bhattacharya, who kept everyone, including the audience, riveted to their seats. “The quiz was brilliantly conducted by joy, and we had to really think hard to crack the answers. Personally, it was great for us to be quizzing with some of India’s finest quizzers and being able to match up, to some extent” said Abhishek Nagaraj, a student of IIM Calcutta and a finalist in the quiz.

The Team Excalibur, with Ms. Jayashree Mohanka as a member, walked away with the top honors.

Creative Writing Workshop

“Pen is mightier than sword, say some. Let’s have a demo first, we said.”

Catering to the creative appetite of people by your words is not the easiest task. But for those who felt like taking an initiative or honing their skills further, Intaglio organized a creative writing workshop which was conducted over the entire day by eminent author Rimi Chatterjee. The workshop was based on the 4 key elements of story writing ““ plot, character, location and mood. By simple exercises like clubbing random locations with specific moods and expressing it in words, Rimi illustrated the keys to complete expression while writing. The participants had a day full of fun and learning in what can be termed a wholesome intellectual exercise. Neeraj Kumar, a student of IIM Calcutta, was visibly satisfied with the event, “We gained some deep insights into the nuances of writing. I am much more informed about the structure of a well written story and the fine difference of approach required while writing in different genres like novels, long stories and short stories.” The workshop was attended by aspiring writers from leading B-schools and if their reaction was any indication, it served its purpose.

Pronite ( HipPocket)

The third and final day of Intaglio, IIM Calcutta’s international B school fest saw huge participation from B schools across the world. After a hard day’s work, there was a lot to party about as the famous Calcutta rock band “HipPocket” came to campus.

They began the night with a lively self composition for an upcoming Bengali movie. The band showed its expertise in various domains of music flitting between genres with exceptional ease. They catered to all the audience’s favorites ranging from John Denver and Bob Dylan to Pink Floyd and even popular Hindi and Bhojpuri songs.

The style of music played was very unique with both the band members singing in synchronism and with absolute perfection. In an informal chat with the Intaglio team they told us of their plans to release an album on similar lines. The band has been touring the circuit of Calcutta for over 15 years and is considered one of the top bands in India and they sure proved their mettle to IIM Calcutta. The band left the crowd enthralled as they finished with the crowd chanting for an encore.

Karaoke Night

Intaglio’s chill-out component, Regalio, continued with more shows following HipPocket’s performance. For the first time, a Karaoke Artist was brought to campus to enthrall the crowds.

Bangalore based Tech Jock KJ SUBZ is widely regarded as the World’s #1 DJ in Bollywood Performance Music. “THE COUNTRY’S MOST ROCKING KARAOKE JOCKEY” is how Times Of India describes him. An IIT Kanpur Alum, KJ Subz is a self-confessed Software Engineer turned Heartware Entertainer.He is the only karaoke jock from India to be featured in the seminal book “Karaoke: The Global Phenomenon.”

Subz’s gigs use singer-friendly, audience-centric Fourth Generation Karaoke Technology. He was interviewed by Businessworld Magazine and featured on National Television (CNBC, Channel V, ZOOM, NDTV and more). The itenerant jock’s gigs take him across the country and overseas.

The karaoke night commenced at nine in the night, but Subz had already started attracting crowds immediately after lunch. Many people signed up with him to perform during the night, as he handled the karaoke engine. The party found many takers, with the audience, for the first time, getting to sing in front of the crowd. Songs were chosen without any barriers of time and language. Old Hindi numbers gave way to Bryan Adams, which was followed by newer Bollywood tracks such as those from Rock On!!!. The crowd thoroughly enjoyed it, making the first karaoke night in the Joka campus a success.