iWorld
Weekend Unwind with visual artist Santanu Hazarika
Mumbai: With another weekend upon us, it is time to unwind with the latest Q&A edition of Indiantelevision.com’s Weekend Unwind—a series of informal chats that delve into the minds of digital content creators through a fun lens, aiming to understand the person behind the creative journey a little better.
In this week’s session, we have Santanu Hazarika. Hazarika is a multidisciplinary autodidact visual artist based in Mumbai. He is a video gamer and an illustrator. He dropped out of engineering to become the first ever Redbull World Doodle Art Champion in 2014 in Capetown, South Africa.
So without further ado, here it goes…
Your mantra for life
You should be experimental and always be curious, you should also question everything and create things to surprise yourself. Not the people around you.
A book you are currently reading or plan to read
The book that I am reading is “Gödel, Escher, Bach” by Douglas Hofstadter. It’s a book that tries to go into the science of creativity. The book includes Physics text, old science, and new science including logic.
Your fitness mantra
Well, my fitness mantra is pretty simple: workout, run and eat as much as required. This is what I feel is important because overeating and overindulging causes stress. It doesn’t matter what you are eating, but the right proportion of food is important.
Your comfort food
Rice and Aloo Pitika l Assamese style mashed potatoes, with Assamese chicken curry and also there is a thing called Khar, it’s a special thing made by chat banana leave and water.
A quote or philosophy that keeps you going when the chips are down
Everything changes and you should always have hope.
The last time you tried something new
I can’t recall exactly when was the last time I tried something new, but more or less I am up for everything. I have mostly tried everything except for skydiving. That is something that I really wanna try.
A life lesson you learned the hard way
I have learned that you cannot be impatient and everything will happen in its due time. There are always things that are beyond your control so you shouldn’t get anxious or drive yourself crazy by thinking that you can control everything around you.
What gets you excited about life
Meeting new people, having experiences, and obviously enjoying life in a way where I get to do things that I’ve always dreamt of as a kid, so I think right now I am just trying to fulfill all the things that I couldn’t do as a child. That is what is exciting for me at the moment.
What’s on top of your bucket list
I really want to settle down in Japan. Have my own house in a quiet old town in the countryside in Japan and just be happy there.
If you could give one piece of advice to your younger self, what would it be
Practicing more art. I wish I had started at a very young age to draw and sketch and was more focused as a teenager or a kid then, I might have had more skills to express myself more diligently and accurately.
One thing you would like to change about the world
I want to see people have more empathy towards each other. I would like to see people be more kind towards each other. I think that is something that we lack and forget, which is being kind to others and yourself.
An activity that keeps you motivated and charged during tough times
I love watching anime and every time I’m going through something really hard. I rewatched some of the old anime that I always used to watch while growing up like Naruto or Dragon Ball Z. It motivates me.
What lifts your spirits when life gets you down
Hope- because everything changes and the fact is I have started from zero and come this far, then I could do it again and I think that lifts me up.
Your go-to stress buster
Traveling, going out, being in nature, or playing video games throughout the day.
iWorld
Tips Music CEO Hari Nair to step down
Girish Taurani and Sushant Dalmia to jointly steer the company as the hunt for a new chief begins
MUMBAI: A leadership shuffle is under way at Tips Music. Hari Nair, the company’s chief executive, will step down on April 30 as the music label begins the search for a successor.
The company said Girish Taurani, executive director, and Sushant Dalmia, chief financial officer, will jointly oversee operations during the transition while the board identifies a permanent replacement.
Nair joined Tips Music in 2023 and set about reshaping the veteran music label into a more digital, data-led enterprise. During his tenure, the company secured licensing and partnership deals with global platforms including Sony Music Publishing and TikTok, while renewing agreements with Warner Music Group.
Drawing on earlier experience in technology and entertainment, including a stint at ByteDance, Nair pushed the organisation towards a performance-driven culture. He built a brand partnerships division and introduced proprietary software systems aimed at strengthening digital distribution and data capabilities.
Kumar Taurani, chairman and managing director, credited Nair with embedding a data-led culture within the company and driving revenue growth in line with shareholder commitments.
In his resignation note, Nair said that after helping transition the label into a modern, digitally focused and process-driven organisation, the time had come to pursue his next leadership challenge.
The leadership change comes as the broader Tips Films group shows signs of financial stabilisation. In the third quarter of FY26 the company reported a net loss of Rs 2.86 crore, narrowing sharply from Rs 14.2 crore in the previous quarter. For the nine months ended December, losses stood at Rs 12.37 crore.
Yet revenue told a more volatile story. Income from operations slid to Rs 4 crore in Q3 FY26 from Rs 56 crore in the preceding quarter, taking total operating income to Rs 4.56 crore.
For a company built on a catalogue of more than 34,000 tracks and decades of Bollywood hits, the next chief will inherit both a digital engine and a volatile music market. The playlist may be familiar, but the next act at Tips Music is only just beginning.
