Vinay Bharadwaj
Vinay Bharadwaj (born 20 July 1983) is an Indian television host, filmmaker, motivational speaker, and fashion designer. His fashion career started through a label called "Shinayele" in a garage in 2014 and since then he has designed outfits for movies and styled some of the leading actresses of South India. He started his hosting career with the show called "Let's Talk With Vinay" on YouTube. He shot to fame in Karnataka for hosting the stylish Kannada talk show called "Mathu Kathe Vinay Jothe" on Star Suvarna channel and Hot Star.[1]
Vinay Bharadwaj | |
|---|---|
| Born | Vinay Kumar July 20, 1983 |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Occupation | Television Host, Film Maker, Designer |
| Years active | 2015–present |
He made his international debut as a host with the show called "Salaam Namasthe Singapore" on Colors TV APAC. Since then he has hosted many popular shows on international feeds of Indian channels. His latest show "Star Talk With Vinay - South Meets North" premiered in 130 countries across the world which had some of the biggest names from movie industry Vidya Balan, Tabu, Rana Daggubati, Santosh Sivan, R. Balki, Aditi Rao Hydari. Vinay is a motivational speaker who does workshops and public speaking at corporate and colleges. He got into film making in 2017 with short films and is made his debut as a feature film maker through Kannada film 'Mundina Nildana'. The critically acclaimed film released in November 2019 and went on to become the musical hit of the year.
Early life
Vinay Bharadwaj was born in Bangalore. He completed his schooling in Kumaran's School (SKCH) and Bachelors of Business Management (BBM) in Bangalore University. At the age of 21, he moved to Singapore to pursue MBA from University of Wales and since then he has settled there. Post his MBA he started his corporate career in Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He moved to Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore where he handled various country and global roles for 9 years. In parallel to his corporate career, out of passion, he started his fashion label. He wanted to spread health awareness and hence conceptualized a talk show. His shows amalgamate inspiring stories and social awareness.
Fashion career
Vinay began his fashion label "Shinayele" in Bangalore along with his childhood friend at his garage. His career began with bridal wear and Indian fusion clothing in June 2014. From designing brides to decking up celebrities, the brand has made a name for customization and unique designs. Vinay's designs focus on using Indian fabrics to create western and fusion clothing. He has designed and styled some of the leading actresses of the South Indian Film Industry.
Television career
In October 2014 a loved one of Bharadwaj was diagnosed with cancer. Post 8 chemo sessions, she had a massive heart attack inside the MRI machine. After 54 days of coma in the ICU battling between life and death on a ventilator, she passed away on 12 March 2015. It was a catastrophic incident and completely changed Vinay's perspective of life. He learned a lot about Cancer and it was alarming for him to know that in the coming years 1 in 5 would be diagnosed with this disease. He wanted to do something to spread cancer awareness. He wanted people who make a difference in society to speak about it. He knew that if the show is only about Cancer,[2] Young India would not see. Hence Vinay amalgamated inspiring stories, casual conversations with health awareness and started a talk show called "Let's Talk with Vinay"[3] in December 2015.
His first series 'Bangalore Edition', had 20 guests spanning from different walks of life and fields and was started on YouTube on a weekly basis from January 2016.[4] He had some of the best of Bangalore like Biocon Founder, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, billiards world champion Pankaj Advani, badminton champion Ashwini Ponnappa, cricketer K. L. Rahul, musician Raghu Dixit, singer and actor Vasundhara Das, Kannada superstar Puneeth Rajkumar and 12 others.
Post this he started the second city'Chennai Edition' in May 2016 on YouTube and hosted 25 stalwarts like Padma Vibhushan Dr.V Shanta, Padma Bhushan Singer Sudha Raghunathan, Actor Padma Shri Vivek, Apollo Hospital granddaughter Upasna Kammineni, Ace music director Devi Sri Prasad, singers Srinivas, Karthik, Chinmayi and 17 more.
His third edition was a Kannada show on one of the leading Kannada channels of Karnataka, Star Suvarna, with celebrities from Karnataka Film Industry. The 12 episode series was widely appreciated for its presentation, format, and array of guests. Along with casual conversations and much entertainment with celebrities, each episode had a short segment with a doctor and patient speaking about different types of illness.
Actress Deepika Padukone's family friend and trustee of her organization (The Live Love Laugh Foundation), Anna Chandy was one of the guests on Bharadwaj's Bangalore Edition. Anna and Vinay collaborated in mid-2016 to do a short web series called 'Mind Check Conversations with Anna' to dispel myths about mental health which was widely appreciated for its content.
He made his international television debut through a successful show called "Salaam Namaste Singapore" which brought together the best of Indian origin people, places and stories together. The show which was telecasted in 14 countries across APAC region was an instant success which led Vinay to bag a celebrity talk show on StarPlus.[5]
"Star Talk with Vinay[6]- South Meets North" was a concept that Vinay created which featured 12 celebrities who are originally from South India or started their career in South Indian Film Industry. The show which was aired on StarPlus, Star Vijay and Asianet, premiered in 130 countries across the world (outside India). It had some of the biggest names like Vidya Balan, Tabu, Santhosh Sivan, R. Balki, Rana Daggubati, Taapse Pannu, Sudeep, Parvathy Thiruvothu, Sruthi Haasan, Aditi Rao Hydari, Tamanna Bhatia, Kajal Aggarwal. The show gained immense popularity amongst the Indian Diaspora.
Film career
Vinay Bharadwaj got into the direction in 2017.[7] His first short film was on organ donation and he had one of the finest actresses of Karnataka, Sudha Rani, play the lead role. Since then he has directed short films in India and Singapore, created documentaries for The Akshaya Patra Foundation and designer Manish Malhotra and conceptualized and directed music videos.[8] He penned his first Kannada feature film which he is directing. An urban love story set in Bangalore which was released in 2019.[9][10]
| Year | Title | Role | Channel | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Let's Talk with Vinay-Bangalore Edition | Host & Concept | YouTube | Completed |
| 2016 | Lets Talk with Vinay-Chennai Edition | Host & Concept | YouTube | Completed |
| 2016 | Mind Check-Conversations with Anna | Host | YouTube-Mind Check | Completed |
| 2017 | Mathu Kathe Vinay Jothe | Host & Concept | Hot Star & Star Suvarna | Completed |
| 2017 | Super Jodi-Season 2 | Guest appearance | Hot Star & Star Suvarna | Completed |
| 2017 | Paakashale | Guest appearance as celebrity chef | Hot Star & Star Suvarna | Completed |
| 2017 | Salaam Namaste Singapore | Host & production | Colors APAC | Completed |
| 2017 | Make it Snappy | Guest appearance as celebrity chef | Zee TV APAC | Completed |
| 2017 | Celebrating Life | Host & Concept | Star Plus APAC | Completed |
| 2016-17 | BB5 | Costume designer & Stylist for heroine Radhika Chetan | Kannada feature film | Post Production |
| 2018 | Star Talk with Vinay-South Meets North | Host & Concept | StarPlus, Star Vijay & Asianet | Completed |
| 2018 | Salaam Namaste Singapore Season 2 | Host & production | Colors APAC | Completed |
| 2018 | Chase | Costume Designer & Stylist for Radhika Chetan, Sheetal Shetty, & Sudha Belvadi | Kannada feature film | Filming |
| 2019 | Mundina Nildana | Story, Screenplay & Direction | Kannada feature film | Released |
Awards and Honors
- 22 October 2016 - "Best Social Activist for the year 2016" at 3rd CIMB National Awards 2016 hosted by Council for Media and Satellite Broadcasting(CMSB)
- 10 December 2016 - "Rotary BSE SME National Award for Excellence in Entrepreneurship 2016" at 5th AD ASREA 2016 Awards hosted by Rotary Bangalore South East
- 28 January 2017 - Felicitation as a special guest (Host of the TV show Mathu Kathe Vinay Jothe) at Mrs. India-Karnataka 2016
- 28 August 2018 - "Finalist-Citizen of the year-2018" Namma Bengaluru Awards
References
- "Topic of cancer a talk in time saves nine". Banglore Mirror. Retrieved 8 February 2017.
- "Conversations on cancer". The Hindu. Retrieved 18 October 2016.
- "Vinay Baradwaj's Let's talk tackles the big C word". The news Minute. Retrieved 20 June 2016.
- "Mathu Kathe Vinay Jothe propose is good". The Hindu. Retrieved 26 January 2017.
- "Documentary explores lesser-known destinations in India in 12 episodes". The Indian Express. Retrieved 24 July 2018.
- "A meaningful 'Host' a la vista". Deccan Chronicle. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
- "Akkamahadevi's Vachana brought back in a jazzy version". Times of India. Retrieved 13 November 2017.
- "Vachana gets a modern Twist". Deccan Chronicle. Retrieved 11 March 2018.
- "Sharath Chandru to be launched as a hero". The Indian Express. Retrieved 28 February 2018.
- "Hit(ha)ting the right notes". Deccan Chronicle. Retrieved 2 April 2018.