When a person chooses to join the creative industry, be it films, music, theatre or fashion, they walk in knowing that they are taking a big risk. Most actors, writers, models and musicians aren’t sure of where their next gig will come from.
But Lakshmi Balasubramanian, who spent 10 years in the field of communication, wants to change this; she wants to make it easier for directors to find actors, actors to find auditions, music venues to hunt for artistes, writers to land creative jobs and more. This is why she started ‘Green Room’, a six-month-old start-up that helps people network.
With the help of her husband, Praveen, who takes care of the technical aspects of the website, she uses her contacts to help people who have an artistic bend. “The reason I started this because of my background. I spent almost 10 years in the television industry, where we had to scout for talent. We’d find it very hard because, although there are numerous artistes, we weren’t able to get in touch with them. We’d have to ask our family and friends eventually in order to contact the artistes,” she says.
Comparing talent-hunting agencies to realtors, she adds, “This is similar to the real estate business, where brokers work on a level that isn’t very legit. Most entertainers and artistes aren’t on a payroll so they are unsure of where their next salary will come from.
Even though there are talent-hunting agencies, it doesn’t help because they are more interested in their commission than finding good talent.” This is why she hopes to establish a more legitimate process, one that will account for all those who need it. It also helps find suitable candidates so that one doesn’t need to sort through piles of applications.
Explaining how ‘Green Room’ works, she elaborates, “We have a site where people need to create a profile. If it’s an actor, model or writer, the person will need to upload their portfolio, and if it’s a director, a video of their previous works. A person should be able to get a good idea of the candidate. Along with that, we get in touch with the people, do a background search and make sure they are legit.” After this, a person need only refine their search and they will get access to artistes from all over.
But if a person doesn’t want to go through such a search, they can directly contact Lakshmi and Praveen, and they will put them in touch with the right people. She makes best use of the contacts she has made over the years.
On why she named it ‘Green Room’, she laughs and says, “A green room is where all the contacts are made, scripts are read and people get a good chance to network. This is exactly what we are — to make the process less chaotic and complicated.”
With already over 4,000 users, ‘Green Room’ is making its mark on the creative fields. “It’s not that we have competitors. There are some sites that cater to just musicians or designers, but we didn’t want to restrict ourselves. A designer might want to perform or audition for a movie, so we want to help everyone,” she says.