2007 Small Business Award
Chayan Sarkar of Bollywood Dreams, receives his award from Michalis Athanasiou - General Manager Australia Laiki Bank
A Queensland company that has cashed in on the international fame of Bollywood has won the Small Business prize at this year’s National Multicultural Marketing Awards.
The winners of the annual event conducted by the Community Relations Commission For a multicultural NSW were announced at a dinner in Sydney recently hosted by the Premier and Minister for Citizenship, Morris Iemma.
Bollywood Dreams is a small Brisbane company that targets Indian filmmakers to convince them to incorporate Australian film locations and Australian talent in their movie productions. Their services also include dance, music, dress, events, filming and décor. Bollywood Dreams says they have set out to become the professional hub of all things Indian in Australia.
Congratulating the Small Business winners, the Chair of the Commission, Stepan Kerkyasharian said: “Bollywood Dreams is doing just what we have been telling people for years – ‘Use the knowledge of your home culture, home language and home business environment to create opportunities for yourself and your employees’.
“What this company is doing is buying into a piece of the film juggernaut which is Bollywood – the largest film industry on earth - by using their birth-country skills and knowledge and imparting that knowledge to fellow Australians of non-Indian background.
“For instance the founder of Bollywood Dreams speaks six languages and his staff all speak Hindi – the language of Bollywood. They have all grown up in India or have close cultural links with the sub-continent. These are all valuable attributes which we, as Australians, can all cash in on”, Mr Kerkyasharian said.
In making its claim for the Multicultural Marketing Awards, Bollywood Dreams application said: “We have integrated and transplanted an Indian community cultural resource into Australia, in particular relating to the Indian film industry. Bollywood Dreams also has an international platform and provides entertainment opportunities for Indian and non-Indian Australians in India. The business has created professional opportunities for ethnic Indians and Australians (of other backgrounds) in the field of Indian film production and Indian performing arts”.
“Dozens of Indian films, song and dance clips and commercials have been shot in Australia in recent years and opportunities abound for Australians, especially Australians of Indian background, to get in one the act. But there are also acting roles for non Indian characters and for talented dancers, stand-ins and stuntmen, elements which are so central to the typical Bollywood blockbuster.
“The National Multicultural Marketing Awards was started in 1989 to draw attention to the need for managers within the public service to get their messages about services and responsibilities to all people in the community and to ensure that services are appropriate for all members of a culturally diverse society. At the same time we wanted the private sector to start appreciating that cultural diversity presented multiple opportunities to increase business and to develop new products and services, especially for export,” Mr Kerkyasharian said.