HUMOUR GURU: UNRAVELLED
1. Karthik Kumar (KK), born on November 21, 1977, is a proletariat and a Tamil Brahmin who has his roots at Mylapore in Chennai. He is not only the founder of EVAM but also a former actor and a motivational speaker.
2. Having completed his schooling at Vidya Mandir and his bachelor’s in Chemical Engineering at Sri Venkateshwara College of Engineering, he was a normal boy without any exposure to the outer world. Though he was the university’s 4th rank holder, he developed his organic curiosity towards stage management, directing and acting.
3. After college, KK’s nexus with entrepreneurship permitted him to complete the two year PDC at Mudra Institute of Communication, Ahmedabad where he started his first theatre group. The group termed ‘Sankalp’ collaborated with other flamboyant institutes such as IIM-A, Gujarat University, Nirma University, IIM-B etc. where they enacted a hodgepodge of English plays.
4. Due to economic instability, his father had to take loans and KK’s first priority was to clear them and bring back their financial stability. So he worked as a sales representative for 2 years and secured a revenue of 5 lakhs. He harnessed the remaining 1 lakh to invest in his dream.
5. His entrenched eagerness in arts entrepreneurship made him the first to illuminate the concept of English plays in Chennai, which along with his friend Sunil Vishnu led to the foundation of two firms namely EVAM and TRAINING SIDEWAYS.
6. EVAM, the name derived from their first play at college, Evam Indrajit, was a Bengali play produced by Badal Sarkar with the plot being “What are you going to be in life?” The story conveys that every person in this world is unique and special, capable of breaking the boundary and moving beyond. Evam Entertainment is India’s only corporate that is into performing arts, arts management and education, and behavioural training.
7. Training Sideways, also a venture of evam, is India’s foremost art based soft skills behavioural training company. KK’s passion is to instil arts education in India by teaching dance, music, acting etc. Based on this, he has instigated other sub-organizations like Brandrama, Standup Tamasha, Firstrush, Happy Cow and Live.
8. As per the notable saying, “When you work for a living why do you kill yourself working?” KK involves himself only in things of his interest. He believes that in a span of 24x7, working for 16x6 half-heartedly is like washing a newly purchased shirt.
9. KK’s mantra has always been to not limit oneself. Irrespective of what the society speaks, he asks the youngsters to chase their dreams though it may be preposterous because every successful innovation is always initially ignored.
10. KK’s play ‘The 39 Steps’ has won two national awards. Apart from acting he also has a passion for travelling. Presently KK is the most respected and ostentatious Tamil entrepreneur and truly lives up to his favourite quote “You are your dream.”
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