Detangle with Andre Timmins

So I think it's a great show that you've got and keep going .

We had a band and you know we were very much into music and I , you know , finished school and then my father said Listen , you know , I got to go out and work and DJing was kind of an inbuilt in our family , music and everything .

So when I went to dj there , I remember that time in 80 , 82 I think , it was 83 it was my salary was 700 rupees right now and probably I had to spend more money because I used to love it . You know , for us it was a , it was a four-star hotel .

Working there , you're meeting all the right people , and so I started my career there as a DJ and then that's actually that's where I understood , you know , what is it to connect with people , what is it the people want ?

You know , and you know my previous boss that was DJing with me , you know , at that time DJs used to be kind of the hot shots , right , you know , in 82 , 83 , 84 . At that period DJs were very kind of in right , music was in and people would come and ask for requests and he would say , okay , I'll play it , and then not play it for one hour .

What I did is , when anybody came to me , the first thing I did I from that time is , when anybody came to me , the first thing I did , I from that time I always wanted people to be happy . I always wanted people to feel good . You know , and people come and say , can I pray a request ?

Right , you know , can you play me this song , that song , and I would play it , like in the next minute or next song would be their song . They would be thrilled . And that's where I saw that . You know the connection . The relationship started way back in 82 , right , 83 . And from there we opened .

I worked for three years and then I opened my first nightclub called Xanadu in Hotel Horizon in 86 . And while we opened a club , the idea was that we saw that we had to bring in people , we had to do certain amount of things . So at that time fashion was very big Dancing was very big . What you see today , in today's day of dance shows .

We were doing it way back in 80 , 86 , 85 , 86 , you know , but they were more .

At that time , you know , of course , we didn't have social media , we didn't have such , you know , communication , and that's where we did a dancing championship , we did a fashion show , and that's the time we realized that listen , you know , there's a need to probably build a kind of a thing in the entertainment space because people need services in that space .

And while we were in , while I was working in takeoff and came to Xanadu , owned my own club , the good part was that we met a lot of influential people , business people . You know what I mean . At that time , clubs was very upmarket , you know what I mean . And that's where I made all my connections , relations .

And then , when we did the Dancing Championship and we organized it because it's part of promoting our club , zanadu , right , that's when we realized that , you know , there is a need in this space . And in 88 , that's when we I Virav , my partner , was with me at Xanadu , and Sabas , who's my partner now .

You know like I'll go on to say more about the three of us also .

We then decided Sabas was working with the Daily and Afternoon newspaper and he came to do an interview with us regarding , you know , being the youngest nightclub owners and doing so many events and everything , and then , post that , we decided that , listen , you know , there's a need for this , why don't we actually do something called A to Z in entertainment ?

And we kept mulling over the idea , mulling over the idea , and we kind of while I was doing , me and Veera for working and owning this club , sabas was there we came up with this idea of what should we name it , what should we do and it was at an entertainment that time was doing birthday parties , singing , telegrams , you know various things where , let's say ,

the household would not do , we could do . You know what I mean . You know , at that time , in a house , you would kind of do a birthday party for your children or whatever you . You would just bring stuff over and do it , right , you know , there was no organizing involved . Basically , that's when we decided what do we collect ? What do we do ?

And then we , you know , came up with goblins , witchcraft and all , and ultimately we came up with a name called Wizcraft . Wow , and it really stuck no . Yeah , and it stuck . And so in 88 , we launched Whizcraft the three of us and at that time it was , you know , called A to Z in entertainment and that time dancing was very big .

So if you look at the current dancers today , or you look at the dancers that we used that time was people like Farah Khan , who's now a big director , right , we used that time was people like Farah Khan , who's now a big director , right . Harshad Vasi , who's also an actor , right , okay , so a lot of people that we use .

Akbar Sami , who's a big DJ today , right . So at that time we had a lot of dancers . Sajid Khan , who's Farah's brother also . So we used dancing was a big thing at that period . So we used to do like on 31st night , we used to do like 10 shows .

We used to all be in a Maruti van and keep running around , right , you know , from this show to this show , this show to this show . So that's pretty interesting . But the challenge was at that time was to get manpower .

We were still doing our jobs , I was still owning the club , sabas was still learning , so we took about close to about eight to nine months and then we decided listen , you know , let's quit what we are doing , let's just focus on with craft and do it . And that's how with craft was born how beautiful is that ?

Tell me about that , zenith

Andre . When you were able to bring Michael Jackson to India when he was at the top , how was that for you ? How monumentally did that change everything in your zone of this craft ?

I don't think many people know the background of bringing Michael Jackson to India in 96 , which was , you know , extremely early thing was bringing international concerts and we were talking to a lot of artists internationally to come to India and suddenly we got a fact from London and LA saying that listen , michael Jackson wants to come to India , he wants to do a

couple of music videos and he's always been enamored by India and he wants to , of course , go to the Taj Mahal , he wanted to meet Mother Teresa and these were all his wishes , that you know . He just wanted to come to India , right . And when we got this fax we thought it was a joke . You know , there was , yeah , because there were fax machines , right .

So we got this fax saying we thought it was a joke , you know , because there were fax machines , right . So we got this fax saying Michael Jackson wants to come to India .

So we thought then we thought it was a prank , we called up the agent and called up the agency and they said no , no , we are very keen to bring him here and he's very keen to come , so let's start our discussions . And at that time we were very concerned about because you know how do we do it , you know how do we make this work .

It's so big , we are still so young , you know . Next thing we knew we were on a flight to meet Michael Jackson . Because what we said to the management , that if we don't meet him right , because Michael Jackson had cancelled the show previously twice , right , okay . So we said if we don't meet him personally , right , ask him face to face , right .

That's the confidence we want , because you know , at the end of the day we are living in India , we can't do something and then it gets cancelled . It's not going to be good . So they said , okay , fine , why don't you come to Los Angeles ?

We can discuss the contract , you can meet Michael Jackson and he himself will tell you that he's keen to come to India . And that's when we kind of got first . We got our act together here .

We met first with Raj Thackeray , bal Thackeray , because they were running the government , because , naturally , bringing Michael Jackson here , we needed the whole support of the government in Maharashtra , right ?

And of course there was absolutely no doubt at that time , also in their mind , that it will be good for Maharashtra , you know , because we'll get international exposure and thanks to them , that we actually it was all you know Bala Sahib's blessings and Raj Thackeray's consistent to support us , to make sure , because he needed security , he needed proper kind of I

would say uh assurance yeah yeah , so that's what we got . And then we went to la and uh , uh , when we went to la to meet him because we were , unfortunately we dressed up in indian outfits you'll get the picture of the net , I'll send it to you . It was a great meeting with Michael Jackson . We went in , we were made to sit down .

We had gone to a hangar , right , okay , there was a hangar where he was rehearsing and we were called there .

We kind of landed there and they put us in one sitting area in a room for about 45 minutes , and then they took us to another room where Michael Jackson would meet you and we were like literally , uh , shivering , right , you know what I mean , you know uh , what a star he was .

Yeah , yeah , uh , you know , uh , and then , uh , we um , waited , uh , and us , you know , ganpati , because it's Lakshmi and we're taking Natraj , right , you know , to present to him . And suddenly when he walked in , right with his whole setup , right , you know , because we were just , we were just numb , right , you know , we kind of stood up , said Hello .

He said sit down . And I have to say one thing we spent with him , I think , close to about 30 minutes , right , and I have to say one thing to you that Michael Jackson , he is , first of all , a great human being , very intelligent , knows the world . He spoke when we spoke about India and we spoke about the culture .

He knew everything when we , when he spoke about Mother Teresa , he spoke about Taj Mahal , he spoke about what he wants to do in India in the charity field . He wants to , he wanted to kind of , you know , bridge the culture , do something for the community , bring in a large part of entertainment into India in the future .

And he was so excited and we handed over both the things to him .

He knew exactly what the Ganpati was because he said I have one big one in my home , right , and I collect a lot of these things in my house because I kind of , if I'm working with a country , I need to know more in my house , because I kind of , if I'm working with the country , I need to know more .

And that meeting was historical for us , you know , meeting Michael Jackson in person , and of course we got him to do a video right , which we kind of took 15 minutes to train him in saying that , you know , you know , because we said , if we don't get a video , how will we go back and tell the people that you're coming ?

So actually he did a video for us right , okay . And when he said , yes , I'm going to come , and then we got this video , we came back . Everybody was so excited . Now the question is now we are back , michael Jackson is on it . Now , the question is now we are back , michael Jackson is on , he wants to do it .

Now , how do we kind of get the infrastructure right ? Because we had to do local infrastructure and all his equipment was coming down and everything . And that's why we kind of bumped into Bharat Shah , you know , at that time was he's still a great human being and he said no problem , you know , if it's Michael Jackson , I'm willing to .

You know , support and help and to bring him stage . We had to work with the Michael Jackson management right as to what they want and how do we work with the Indian sentiments , right of what they want and how do we do this .

And the one thing we told Michael Jackson when you come down here , you know you need to do a press conference , you need to meet people . You know we need to do a press conference , you need to meet people .

You know we need to do some charity , we need to , we need to kind of , you know , be more , because Michael Jackson would never do a press conference .

You know he would come into a country , into a city , perform and go away , right , yeah , so we got him to do all these things and but putting the show together but putting the show together , you know what I mean was extremely , extremely stressful . I think with Michael Jackson coming to India , the best thing for Wiscraft was Wiscraft became a household name .

Everybody in the country knew who Wiscraft was and everybody knew what event management was right . They understood that event management has now landed and everybody who's going to be in this business . It's good for people , it's good for a career and that's what scaffolded event management .

The term event management came after Michael Jackson left and Vizcar became a household name .

I mean , what evolution do you see ?

what they want . They want the best , they want something different , give me something different , give me something good , something that nobody else has done . And as we started off our career and got into corporate events and concerts and everything , corporate events is basically , uh , today termed as brand activation and experimental .

So the idea was at that time , when we were doing corporate events , it was more to kind of , you know , propagate their brand within their dealers and everything . But that time the demand was more to do with , I would say , more from a point of view of on-ground experience . Right , today , it's very different .

Today it's all about immersive , it's all about engaging with experiences and audiences and it's all about leveraging technology , social media , reach and everything . So today's demand , you know , especially after COVID , right , is very different , you know . So , if I look at , if I go back in the 90s , right , okay , everything was new to us when we bought lasers .

It was new to us when we bought 3D lasers . It was new to us when we bought holographic images . It was new to us , right ? So those , all those stages of life . And if you look at it today , today is very different .

Today is all about technology , social media , immersive , and people have become more cautious of their brands , right , because the shift to digital is there today , you know . So I would say that's the new dimension to events today . Lovely .

And the best thing about as to what I love right and brings me happiness is when the event goes well , the client is happy and he says listen , great , show guys , superb .

And that's when you know , because in our business it's all about now , it's all about what event you've done now , right , if you don't do a good event , client doesn't come back to you , right . So you've got to make sure that it's 100% right and the client is happy , and that's the most important thing in our business .

Right Is making sure everything is right and well . It comes from a lot of teamwork . You know , the most important thing is teamwork and for me , that's what makes me happy is when the client is happy and he says you know , the event is great , superb

.

For example I'll give you a small example , you can take it forward later is when we did around about 90 I think of 93 or 94 , we had done the launch of Samsung in India and we did this launch at the Taj Mahal Okay , just outside , with the backdrop and everything .

And the beauty of technology at that time was where the screen opens up and the TV travels on a track in the front . But today it's very different . Today you can do it with immersive , you can do the holographic . You know it's extremely different in terms of creating magical moments for your clients .

The important thing is , for us , creativity has no boundaries .

So the idea here is what we've been doing currently with our employees , with our people , and everything is actually working in a way where there's a balance . You know , because in our business it's you know .

You could actually just you know have a lot of issues when you're working , because projects that we do , large projects like the Commonwealth Games , right , or Global Citizen , everything you're working with multiple talents , multiple artists , multiple people , you know , and each compartment that you're working on brings a lot of pressure on you .

And you're also working with 1,000 people , 2,000 people across . Somebody is doing stage , sound lights , venue logistics , people coming in , going out , and the most important thing in all these events is also making sure everybody is secured . Oh , yes , absolutely . So security of people in which is the least in India , as you see , right ? Oh , yes , absolutely .

And everything that people come in smoothly , people go smoothly , you know , and that's what I would say , but of course you know what I mean . There's so many other things that you don't account for , or obscene things that you know whether it's commercially or not commercially , but I think for us it's both .

I wouldn't say it would sadden me the most , but I would say from a point of view that there is stress and happiness also at the end Agreed .

Any tips you have for newcomers in this industry , because now a lot of people are in , a lot of people are doing event management . What would you advise them and how do you take care of yourself ?

The idea here is like a plan yeah , that sounds like a plan , but I'm saying that because in our business , when we're working with stars , we're working with people , not necessarily everything goes well right , and especially in the entertainment business , there's always a chance of that .

Anything can happen , and the one thing that I do is that I never I'm always upfront . This is the problem , this is what is it . Now we need to solve it right , because if you keep , if you don't tell them the truth , right , you're going to be in a big fix .

So you got to make sure that , whatever you do , you must be upfront and you must tell them that this is the situation .

For example , if I'm doing a show and something happens , or there's no license , or there's a problem , or there's a permission Even with our clients we work with our clients as a team that this is what the issue is , because that will de-stress you , right , okay , okay , and then you work a solution out and go forward .

But for me , the way I look at my life and my stress dealing with in the events , business is we always got to be smiling , positive , focused and we got to make sure that this is going to happen .

You know your relationship with your partners , and how far do you see yourselves going ?

They're all my friends , and relationships , according to me , is the most important thing in business , also in friendship . What I believe today is that when three partners are together for 36 years Wow , knock on wood for that . Thank you so much . Virav Sabas and myself , we've been together .

We all have our differences when we work , but the one goal we have is that whatever we do is going to be best for the company or best for that event .

Right , and for the youngsters today , what I keep telling them , right , when they come you know we have so many people working in our company I keep telling them listen , you know , don't look short term , look long term . Always , always look at , always look at front end , always look at meeting clients .

You know giving your best shot , being straightforward , you know being humble in events is very important . To be humble because that's the most important thing , that the client is king . True is youngsters who are so impatient , right , because let's say they're drawing , let's say 100 rupees here and after six months somebody is giving them 125 rupees , they'll jump .

And I keep saying yeah , and I keep telling them listen , be patient , grow , and you know this goes with my father . My father worked in the airport for 33 years , you know , and Veera's father worked in Godrej for 30 years .

So the idea here is it comes from there , right , and that's why the three of us have been together for 36 years and I think we'll be together for lifetime .

And in the year 2000 , 99 , 2000, . It was that whole if you know that internet craze , right , you know what I mean , the whole craze that come in the year 2000 . And then we decided that while we are doing events for other people , why don't we build our own IP ? And it was two things Do we get into cinema or do we get into cricket ?

Okay , at that time right , because you know , two global IPs from India was , of course , cinema and cricket .

Right , we choose cinema from a simple perspective , because we found that one is that we were already involved for so many years , we learned so much , we were very much entrenched into the industry and we felt that cinema was something that can go and tell stories to the world . Right , and we wanted to take our stars to the fans .

Right , because you know , I mean the second and third generation abroad didn't have a chance ? There was no . There was nothing like this abroad . Everything was in India . So that's when IFA gave birth and we started in London , at the Millennium Dome , two and a half thousand people .

We got Mr Bachchan , mr Amitabh Bachchan , to be our brand ambassador and I give you know , I give all the credit to AIFA today , of course , is to Mr Bachchan and the film industry that supported us , to , you know , kind of , stay alive for 24 years . This is our 24 years and hopefully in the 2050 , we may go back to London .

But what comes to my mind is IFA is the formula E . Not many IPs stay alive for so many years . True , and IFA is all about exporting India to the world , and that's why we are very , very proud to be an Indian brand . We are very proud that we've achieved this out of India .

I have to tell you one thing what you see on TV and what you see live is two different things altogether . Really , yes , yes . So please come to the next , saifa .

Right , you know what I mean . And go out there and do what you want to do , andre , at 20 . Again , building strong relationships and networking and , lastly , be true to your passion and vision , even if it's tough , Especially when it's tough , especially when it's tough .

You know people should know more about this entire cardiac arrest campaign that you're doing , you know , and the one thing I want to appeal to all the actors and the film industry and celebrities that they all should be part of this campaign , because what you're doing is the awareness nationally .

Ok , and I've seen , through my support , how many people have got saved right . Oh , yes , it has been phenomenal . Yeah , and in a small way , when I went through small healthcare , I understood , you know , what it means to knowing more right , you know what I mean and in today's day and age , if you don't listen , you won't learn .

So I think you know I'm there to support you in whatever I can do in a small way , but I think we are not doing enough . Our industry is not doing enough . We need to do more and that's my promise We'll get more people to spread the word .

Let me ask you one of my favorite questions on the podcast . Three seasons , so many guests and my question remains . We all have a physical first aid box at home . We like to keep things like maybe band-aids , painkillers , you know anything , for those minor cuts and bruises . But what if you were to have a mental first aid box ?

What would you put inside that that would take care of a bad emotional day ? You know , opening something which would just make you so happy .

When I travel or when I go anywhere , I don't watch movies , I listen to music . So music , music for me is medicine . It unwinds me , uh , resets me , you know , and also brings me back a lot of memories . Right , because the music that I like , you know . The second thing is I would put in my box is my prayers . Prayers is huge , huge part of me .

Starting my day or doing anything , the first thing I do is my prayers , you know . And , of course , you know I want to create a positive impact in work . So I think , for me , my box would be kind of family , friends , music , prayers and , of course , you know , bringing joy to people , you know , providing comfort and motivation in challenging times .

So what would your day look like and what would make you happy ?

And then I just used to feel so bad that I couldn't share these discussions with my friends or with others , so that the inspiration spreads . That's how the podcast came about and I said , ok , there are people doing amazing work out there , and if I can just talk to them and share these conversations , it would bring me so much more joy . And so it started .

So I record two or three times a week , depending on when the season is being uploaded . Sometimes there's a break when the season is just done , and that time I'll focus more on my writing . I'm currently writing my fifth book , so that again is food for my soul , because reading and writing are parts of me that I can never give up .

So a usual day would be about three to four hours of consulting , maybe an hour of working on the podcast . If recordings are underway , then the days are longer . I also have two kids . Both are teens One is 16 , one is 14 . So I enjoy spending my time with them .

I think , all said and done , my biggest joy is when I know that they're looking at me and they are seeing there's so much that we can do in life . They look at me and they don't see somebody who is waiting for things to happen . They see me as a proactive person , and this is the best teaching that I'm giving them .

So that is my sense of joy when they see that , ok , you know what , mom , we're going to do this , this and this . We're not afraid to try new things . So that is my biggest win .

to you , Andrey . I mean , a lot of people asked me when you know , my other guests also saw that you were on the list this season . They said really , how does event management and psychology , what synergy do they have ? And I said , everything in life is about psychology and this conversation has brought out so much of that in such a beautiful way .

Unless you understand what a person wants , unless you understand what a person doesn't want , there is no event happening wants . Unless you understand what a person doesn't want , there is no event happening . And an event is such a beautiful way for us to express ourselves , right from little weddings to large grand celebrations .

It's all about expressing us as individuals , as families . So I've had a great time talking to you . I've had a great discussion understanding how everything from djing to michael jackson to wi-fi has come about . But thank you so much for taking this Sunday afternoon off and for being with me on Detangle .