Evam is the baby of a dream. A vision held, envisaged and nourished in the minds of two young MICA students.
Sunil Vishnu K from Bhopal and Karthik Kumar from Chennai met in the campus of MICA during 1998-99. Sankalp, MICA’s theatre group, was virtually dead but the duo took over and pumped life into it. What started as a part-time, fun time-killer during college soon took over their lives. The shows they did on campus were a huge hit and they realized they had found their calling. And unlike most of their fellow students they weren’t looking for a respectable degree and a posh job. They were bonded by a passion.
Breaking usual college norms, they did a thesis together on ‘Feasibility of an entertainment company which has theatre as its core product.’ But they weren’t ready to let it be just something on paper. They decided to put it in action.
But hard-core realities caught up with them after graduation. Sunil went to work with Elephant Design and Karthik landed a job with Real Image. But they never lost sight of their vision.
After 2 years, both of them saved up money and started ‘evam entertainment’. An entertainment company with the prime aim of making people happy… Getting them high and stamping the evam spirit into their hearts.
One of evam’s most significant strides in the theatre society is dismissing the illusion that a profitable and sponsor-filled theatre group cannot exist in today’s entertainment arena. What started in 2003 as a one lakh company has now grown into a flourishing 1.5 crores entertainment sector with six full-time employees. Evam does over 50-odd public shows per year. It has over 10000 audiences spread over 3 cities. Apart from this, evam also manages theatre festivals. Evam prides itself on being an effective marketing
communications medium, entertainment being the language, to further the objectives of the brands it partners. Some of the brands who have partnered evam are – Standard Chartered Bank, TCS, HSBC, Royal Sundaram, Citibank, Mehta Jewellery, Nestle, Motorola, The Times of India, BPL, The Hindu, The Park, Airtel, Zest and Sab Miller.
The future looks brighter and better still. ‘Happy Factory’, evam’s corporate workshop which is designed to pepper the happy spirit in people’s lives and make them feel special about themselves, is all set to go big time. And early next year, the nation will wake up to evam’s adaptation of Chetan Bagath’s ‘One Night At The Call Center’. A grand opening is being worked out and the show (hold your breath!) will feature across 14 cities in the span of a month. Evam believes in spreading joy and helping the world around it. And following that, evam will soon be taking over the children’s ward of Cancer Institute.
Watch out! The dream just got bigger!
