Niret Alva is an Indian television producer who is the co-founder and chairman of television production company Miditech. With a wide and varied experience in successfully adapting international formats for Indian tv audiences, Niret has worked closely and collaboratively with a range of national and international broadcasters and development organisations, from Star Plus and Sony to BBC World, National Geographic, Discovery, Fox, Turner, UNICEF, UNDP and Doordarshan. Sameera Fernandes speaks to him in an informal chat on various aspects of his professional life.
You have a reputation for treading the unconventional path? What has instilled these traits in you?
At the time when we were growing up, we did not have many options in front of us. The unconventional route at some level was imposed upon me more by elimination. Not wanting to pursue math, wanting to be at Delhi St. Steven’s College, the only course that was available to me was History. Media hadn’t really opened up at that point of time and many people around me felt that I was making a mistake by venturing out into Doordarshan, which did not seem like a promising career to venture out into during those times.
However, communication was my forte and I started as a reporter with Press Trust of India (PTI) in the late 80’s and later went on to join Hindustan television. My younger brother Nikhil Alva had the entrepreneurial bug and launched Miditech, a television production company. Here we covered various documentary series on the environment – Living on the Edge for Doordarshan, and later for BBC, Discovery and National Geographic before entering the entertainment genre with Indian Idol, Galli Galli Sim Sim (Sesame Street), Wheels and others. A few years later, we got on to the commercial bandwagon, spread our wings and grew offices in Mumbai and Bengaluru. And we have kept evolving ever since.
You are a self-made entrepreneur. What has driven this passion and creative approach in your professional life?
My professional life centres around finding projects that I am most passionate and excited about. It’s all about finding a unique way of doing things that resonates with our personality. For example: Indian Idol was a great show which helped people all across India showcase their talent on our platform. As producers of the show, we were excited to offer people a platform to fulfil their dreams and do justice to their talents. Ingrained in our DNA, we followed values of authenticity in identifying the best possible talent. However, today, people do not trust the media and reality shows as before. The authenticity, reliability and truthfulness is missing to a large extent. Everything seems to be scripted and the feeling of reality seems to be somewhere lost in between.
Environmental issues take centre stage in recent times. What are your plans to support this pressing cause?
In the 90’s our documentary – Living on the Edge showcased the environment and we found exciting ways to engage with the youth. There was a time when we were at the forefront of featuring environmental importance and conservation. Topics such as volatile climate, recycling, reducing wastage and other areas were something that we placed importance to. Presently, we are working on the restoration of a lake nearby home. Together with the help of the community and volunteers, we work towards self-conversation and preservation and this is the least we can do for our neighbourhood and in turn support nature.
How important is the use of social media in your current projects? Have any of these platforms been useful either professionally or personally?
Social media can be used either as a destination or a door way. It is an excellent platform for those who are trying to build their personal brand. To me, social media is all about keeping myself abreast with family happenings and recording social interactions. However, I believe this platform can be used to promote narcissism or voyeurism. However, we need to take a deep dive and understand what do we really require social media for and that will make all the difference.
Your advice to future leaders…
Leadership is finding different ways of serving humanity for the greatest good. It is important for us to develop our leadership style based on our personality. Make sure that the leadership style is authentic to you, and not something you have heard in a TED talk or read in a book.
One never anticipates becoming a leader. Often, leadership is thrust on you and everyone is suddenly looking at you for the answers. Questions of introspection are always common. Lot of television shows have millions of followers who are young people who are blindly following the leader. And that is what scares me. The infamous movie – the Wolf of Wall Street for example highlights how a young man takes on the world laden with debauchery, sex, drug use and criminal activities. Yet, he emerges successful. Movies such as these certainly wrongly influence the young generation who get carried away easily.
Your views on Moral Relativism or Ethical Relativism
Good and bad can be looked at in absolute. What works for you may not work for someone else. And everything has consequences. So moral relativism, moral absolutism at some level, is important. Spiritual practice is also important and should take centre stage in our lives to some extent. A lot of young people have depression setting in so early and addiction of the weirdest kind. We need to have a platform where we can advise our youth and open doors for real conversations.
Where do you stand on gender significance?
I believe I’m a feminist and we cannot differentiate on the basis of sex. At the same time there is a balance that we need to find and we are currently in a very confusing work talking about gender fluidity. Liberal people can be the most illiberal if you disagree with them. It’s perfectly fine to agree to disagree. If we surround yourself with people who only agree with you, then one day that bubble may break when reality strikes. So it’s time to get into our true self and make a difference wherever we can.
The views and opinions published here belong to the interviewer and the interviewee and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the publisher.
She was conferred with the Nirbhaya Award and also the ‘Woman of Influence’ Award by Archbishop Dr. Peter Machado.
Her past stints include Sun Microsystems, Nokia (UAE), Jet Airways, Al Ghurair Investments (UAE) and has been a regular contributor to the Friday Magazine of Gulf News.
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