“Tell us something about yourself, Prashant.”

“Sir, I’m an engineer by…well…..
– A half-MBA from Symbiosis by circumstances.
– A banker to government by opportunity.
– A poet by serendipity.
– A footballer by passion.
– A cinephile by love.
– A model by accident and an assistant casting director by choice.”

I’m sure you guys share the same reaction that the panel had. In fact, every panel of every b-school I went to had the same reaction.

MBA was always the plan but life happened while I was planning for it.

I never wanted to be an engineer but survived those 4 years and that’s where I fell in love with cinema. I have been in love ever since.

I flunked my CAT in 2012. Though I was a topper at the coaching institute, I got only 60 something percentile when the results were announced. I saw my result, laughed and went back to sleep. I got through SNAP and went to Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies, Pune but soon got disillusioned with a lot of things, not just the way we were taught.

I wrote Bank PO exam while preparing for my first semester exams and got into Bank of Baroda. It was a difficult decision but I decided to quit my MBA for two reasons - one was that I felt unprepared for one and second, I realised, very consciously, my potential.

My stint at bank was anything but smooth. All I knew till then was that banks worked from 10 to 4 and for me, that meant that I’d have time to prepare for CAT but it turned out I was working from 10 to 10 and sometimes during the weekends. I could not give CAT and I was so frustrated and annoyed that I wanted to quit but better sense prevailed.

I had nothing to do then and a drop wasn’t a wise choice, so I sucked it up and became one of the best performers of the whole South Gujarat Zone. I realised I needed to learn my job so as to tell the interviewers what I did in the bank. So, I volunteered to head the newly created Marketing department in the branch and along with my team, pulled out the branch from loss to a profit of Rs. 10 crores in the next two financial years. It was particularly brilliant because we were a small branch where most of the portfolio consisted of deposits and we managed that huge profit by working with only 80 crores of Advances. I received a lot of commendations for my work in and I thought it was the right time for me to move onto greener pastures in and then ‘it‘ happened.

My heart was broken and I didn’t know what to do. I had never felt that kind of excruciating pain in my life. A person is no more with you and there’s nothing that can fill that void. Poets have tried to romanticise it but you can never know that suffering unless you go through it yourself.

I wanted to die. Tried and failed, of course.

It looks funny and stupid in the hindsight but that’s true for every mistake we make. Everyone’s wiser in hindsight.

I left my job and moved to Pune to my younger brother. He helped me get out of that rut. He made me join a gym and it soon became my catharsis. I needed a goal, something to focus on and I had it. I went onto do things in the gym that even the trainers couldn’t fathom and the hard work at the gym soon presented a modelling opportunity for me. I was offered a professional contract by a leading agency that I politely refused but still went on to work for some of the most reputed brands in fashion.

Soon, I found work in casting and it was there that I got to do the things I loved the most. I could write, direct and act.

I worked on Inside Edge Season 3, an Amazon Prime Original Series, a Viacom Original Series, a Fox Searchlight project and a lot of ads. It was an unbelievable experience and one that taught me the most.

I did research on the database, called actors for audition, coordinated with them, acted, directed, wrote, improvised, and negotiated salaries with the actors. Yes, everything.

I did that every single day for a year.

And in the meantime I also took CAT.

When I look back at the last two years of my life, I have no idea how I managed all that.

Everything changed for better. People who know me could only marvel at my transformation and achievements.

I know it’d sound pompous but I really am proud of myself.

But that being said, the most important learnings for me from the experience have been through, is that you need to be humble, grateful, hopeful, confident and above all a good human being in life.

That is all that matters in the end.

prashantdangi

From Engineer To Half-MBA To Model To Casting Assistant To IIM Lucknow