The funky way forward

A blend of freaky and creative thoughts led to the popular production house, ‘Freakitive’, which is a start-up that deals with media-related aspects like marketing, branding and graphic design.

Driven by the notion that even small items have a place in society, ‘Freakitive’ came with the notion to show that even  ‘freaks’ could be funky and creative.

Started by two graduates, Kishore Amruth and Antony Antony, around June 2013, the venture has come a long way from making small merchandise like bookmarks and luggage tags to shooting for major companies like Redbull, Harley Davidson and Cadbury Bournville.

“Cadbury Bournville held a campaign called “Not So Sweet Nights”, for which we helped in shooting and worked on a logo for them. We also made logos for an event management company called Stage 360 and manage production for the popular YouTube segment, ‘Archana’s Kitchen’,” says Kishore.

The duo also shoot for weddings and are already booked and busy throughout the year.

They have also been judges to various college fests and have given lectures in different colleges, about their journey, like PESIT, NITK and MCC.  

“We were two photographers in college. We went around collaborating and shooting for different events and then decided to start a production house on our own. We are just  two people managing everything on our own and we hire interns who want to gain experience in public relations, photography, branding and graphic design,” says Kishore.

Kishore adds that initially, ‘Freakitive’ faced immense challenges.

“A lot of “wh” questions were thrown at us. People didn’t really believe where we would go from our start-up and how we could establish ourselves. Many thought we didn’t have enough experience. Also, a lot of them expected us to work for less money or less work for free. It was cheap labour. People don’t understand that a start-up is also a profession and revolves around something significant.”

After conceptualising the idea two years back, in college, and then starting the venture in a full-fledged manner, the logo of ‘Freakitive’ spread like wild fire.

“The response was good as a lot of people got to know about us. We evolved a lot through our learning experiences.”  Kishore reminisces how difficult things were for them when the company just started.

“Last year, when we just decided to start, we thought we would have one meal a day as we were so busy and committed towards making this happen.”

When asked how Kishore and Antony knew each other and collaborated together, Kishore says, “I was a photographer in college and was always into designing.

Antony was also into photo-shooting and beatboxing in college. Our interests somehow merged and we decided to start ‘Freakitive’.”

He adds that the two never took up any ambush marketing and the entire process was only through word of mouth.

“Word of mouth and social media networking sites are very powerful tools. Our interns are mainly mutual friends who spread the word around and more people come to us because of what they hear.”

The duo are currently working on an app called ‘favour’, which will help people bring in hourly earnings.

“This is our next big step and still in its initial stages. A lot of research is going on into this,” he says. 

Apart from freezing time through their technology; the two enjoy shooting for weddings and share the love for travel and food. 

“This start-up is mainly to show that ‘freaky’ people can be creative at the end of the day. To all those who want to start their own ventures and are thinking about the risks involved, I want to tell them to follow their passion and aim for self-satisfaction,” adds Kishore.