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Behind ‘Off The Comms’, Brewed by ‘Souls United by Love for the Console’
by Mugdha Gaonkar Industry Watch | May 7, 2021 | Interview
Brewing Entertainment Off The Comms Meghaa Ghosh Apaar Bhandari Anshu Kothari
Brewing Entertainment launched ‘Off The Comms’, a show that seeks to celebrate people from the experiential and live entertainment industry.
The first episode went live on 6 March 2021 and the latest and tenth episode went live on the brand’s YouTube channel on 1 May.
Episodes feature personalities from different aspects of experiential, entertainment and television (M&E) spaces. So far, the show has featured Chanda Singh, CEO of XP&D; Rohan Battise, Founder of EB21; Rahul Karwa, Ex-WPP, Geometry Encompass, Ogilvy; Anchor Sachin Kumbhar; Sameet Sharma, Ex- Viacom Live, Big Live, Geometry Encompass; Dezadd D, Founder of The Floor Management Company; DJ Russel and Ayesha Dominica (Artiste and Artiste Manager; Rajesh Brijraj Singh, EVP of Shobiz; and Ramnarayan KG, Ex-Viacom Movies and Founder - Wobbler Creative and Content.
EVENTFAQS Media reached out to Meghaa Ghosh, Apaar Bhandari, Anshu Kothari, Girish Chandran and Sony Advani Parikh, Founders of Brewing Entertainment, to know more about how a show for the event and entertainment fraternity was conceived, response received from the industry and long-term plans.

How did the five founders of ‘Off the Comms’ come together? How did the idea of ‘Off the Comms’ materialise? Please take us through the actual circumstances.
Individually, we’ve all known each other for several years. Back in April 2020, when the pandemic and the lockdown left us all reeling, like everyone else we fell back on technology to keep us going. And it was at this time, one day, Girish sparked the thought of the five of us doing something together. He set up a casual catch up night where we went app-hopping instead of pub hopping. A night of conversation, nostalgia, successes, misses, laughter, anecdotes, drinks, forgotten memories, mindless banter – everything we’d do typically at one of our favorite haunts after work. At a time when everything that we were seeing around especially for the experiential industry was either bad news or worry-inducing or knowledge-focused, we realised the biggest bit that was missing was the camaraderie, the relationships, the emotions, the friendships, the heart of it all.
Interestingly enough, the five of us together, have at no point, worked in one agency at the same time. We’re just souls who are united by their love for the console and that's how we came together as Brewing Entertainment. Our story is symbolic of several friendships across this industry and became the underlying premise of what we’ve created with Off The Comms.
How long was the show in-the-making? What were your considerations when you designed the format?
We started on this at the end of April 2020 and spent about a year from the first thought, to the name, shoot, legalities, post-production and the works. We were clear in our vision for Off The Comms – a show that celebrated the camaraderie, the friendships, the lighter side of the lives of the event fraternity. Something we knew every member of this industry has experienced first hand and would relate to.
Off The Comms is structured to be a conversational show that talks about the non-work, non-serious side of one’s life in the events space. The what / who / how of one being in this industry. The anecdotes that they could never forget. The WTF moments where they went Means!!!? We’ve put producers, directors, artistes, everyone on the couch for that fireside chat and team games that they’ve organised in their shows innumerable times. We also brought their friends to join in on the show and via video surprises. We were very clear that we wanted this to be Informal, casual, similar to what it would be if you were hanging out for a drink after work with just the one slight exception that we were also social distancing and Zooming this!
What have you set out to do with ‘Off the Comms’? What is its USP?
Our industry is one that has unbelievable talent, incredible people and unforgettable stories. For far too long we felt that most of these have not seen the spotlight or been spoken about enough. Most of these have been at the console, behind the black masking or backstage but never really on stage. We wanted to create a show that brought these people and these life-stories to the forefront. We also realised that there’s an abundance of content that’s focused on knowledge and learning in the form of workshops, masterclasses, webinars, training modules and so on but not even one that focused on the fun, real, relatable, human side of the experiential business. The friendships and relationships are probably the biggest thing that this industry has given to all of us and that in turn has made every individual give as much back to the industry.
How do you decide on people to feature on the show? What are the criteria?
When the five of us started out, we reminisced about the greats, the ones we all know, the architects of this industry, the ones who went out and said, “Yes, this is going to be an expertise, a service offering and a business.”
We then paused and realised that we wanted to say thank you to those greats for their vision and bringing us together. But with that we also wanted to celebrate our peers, the ones who have spent over a decade here and have had illustrious journeys so far. They have been instrumental in changing the game and the face of the industry as we know it. In leadership positions, running their own firms, expanding the industry and its offerings and doing so much more. It was in this background that we drew up a list of people that we wanted on the show. While this is our key focus, as we move ahead, we are working on format variations and specials as well.
What has been the response to Season 1 of the show so far? Tell us about a few interesting anecdotes unearthed during the show.
It started out with a lot of surprise (that we expected!) and continued to become one of sheer joy, laughter and happiness (that we hoped for!). We’ve had a huge outpour of messages from people laughing, remembering and relating to the stories shared. Another big sentiment has been that of people getting to know the guests a lot better in spite of knowing them and working with them for a decade or two. The ‘Means’ segment has been a hit with people outside of our industry as well because of how relatable it has been. The games have been a welcome change not just for the laughs but also because the guests are in the hot seat instead of the ones directing or producing such pieces. Having friends on the show and in the form of surprise video messages have left people in splits, shock, warm fuzzies or a mix of them all. The anecdotes have to be watched instead of read but suffice to say ‘jugaad’ has been a great underlying theme of them all – the ingenuity of the people in our industry shines through it while ensuring people are laughing.
How do you plan to monetise the show?
For season 1, our goal was to put out a quality product that was first-of-its-kind and sparked joy. We’re now working on the monetisation strategy as we’re exploring collaborations, strategic alliances and a lot more that are in line with our long term goals for Off The Comms.
How does ‘Off the Comms’ serve the larger interest of the experiential industry? What are your long-term plans for it?
Off The Comms is the first show of its kind in terms of the format and content focusing on the lives of the drivers and doers in the experiential industry beyond just business. It’s also the first that’s featuring people who are in every sense the second and the next generation of this industry. These life-stories are documenting how the nation’s entertainment industry has evolved, ecosystems built and how lives have been created here. These are also stories that the newer talent in the industry will not just listen to but also be inspired by. We’ve got audacious goals for it and just as we did with the show, our heads are down focused on realising those.
The people connect and relationships matter in every industry. Why is it even more important in the context of the events and experiential industry?
It’s one thing to just say that ours is a people-driven business and quite another to exemplify it in every little thing we do. Across the board, from ideas to execution and even when you think of technology, every experience is the people behind it – the problem-solver, the ideator, the designer, the producer, the set fabricator, the engineers and we could go on. We’ve all been curating, creating and conceptualizing communities before it became a thing. Add to that the nature of what we do and how we do it. Collaboration drives this industry and people always drive that. The business of our business is people in every sense of it. The events and experiential industry has thrived because of its people and the relationships it fostered, the belonging it created. With Off The Comms, we’ve actually brought that to the forefront. Even the partners who worked with us – be it Minal Mehta for the identity design, AdSto Live for creative video production and Murli Pillai for the quizzing segment – are all examples of the relationships we’ve built here.
EVENTFAQS Media reached out to the Founders of Brewing Entertainment to know more about the show which launched in March and is now 10 episodes old.