PEAKLIFE

Photo Courtesy: Rohan Shrestha

For the most powerful image builder and reputation manager in the film circles, Rohini Iyer counts her searing ambition as her inborn passion.

She powers the numero uno reputation management company in the Indian entertainment industry. The unbeatable game changer. For Rohini Iyer, Founder & Director, Raindrop Media, her life is “nothing short of a Hindi film”.

“My life is full of drama, tackling the next big crisis, crunching in 48 hours of work into my 24 hour day,” laughs Rohini. “I call it living the dream and hope I never wake up. Honestly, challenges have never disturbed me. To the contrary, they give me an unequaled adrenaline rush. Simply put, if my clients were not tough and challenging, I would not be working with them!”

Her Instagram handles reads ‘Rebel without a cause or a pause but maximum applause 🙂 Always dreaming an impossible dream’. True to her passion, Rohini started out as a film journalist at 16 and soon enough shaped her own company. Today she is one of the most highly sought after reputation management individuals in the film circles. Something that exacts 24-hour involvement with her work. “My work is my time to myself,” confesses Rohini simply. “I never switch off. I have made peace with this fact and secretly love it,” she smiles and then adds, “I believe power is never given, you just have to take it. For me, true power means the ability to decline, do work your way and on your own terms while being able to influence opinions, shape thinking and make a difference to society and the world at large.”

But with great power, come greater enemies. How does Rohini deal with the ‘power play’ that almost every successful woman has experienced at some point in her life? “I call it I call it the Big Boys Club where a group of men decides to boycott a powerful, opinionated woman. It happens all the time, across the world but more so in India. But my experience has made me realize that your reputation is what you create, and your character is what you have…so I would rather focus on that,” she retorts.

Rohini’s success story has also made its way to author Sudha Menon’s book Devi, Diva and She-Devil, inspiring many. “I have a group of close friends, a network of women whom I call my “Powerpuff Girls” – strong women figures whom I can reach out to when need be. Madonna inspires me aplenty. She said once she wants to be more famous than God,” grins Rohini. In real life, she counts her mother as her backbone. “I was brought up by a strong, opinionated mother who never differentiated or treated me any different based on whether I was a boy or girl… that experience has shaped my entire life,’ she shares.

What is the best part about being Rohini Iyer? “That I’m a wild card for life…a gambler by heart,” she laughs. “I thrive on risks and simply love playing blind. Standing out has always come naturally to me because I have never fit in. I have always marched to the beat of my own drum, sometimes making my own tune and despite a few setbacks that have come with it…it has also made me who I am. So my advice to women is to ‘be audacious’ – ask for what you want, or you will end up settling for whatever you get.”

(As told to Shilpi Madan)