Dilip Kumar Shrivastava, CEO, and Founder at Kreiva Interactive on an Interview with MostPopularStories, let’s get to know more about his entrepreneurial journey. Kreiva Interactive is one of the emerging media entertainment houses that offers the entire range of entertainment design services like storyboarding, Concept art, and Visual Development for Feature films, Animation movies, Video games, and TV Commercials.
1. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey as an
entrepreneur
Since my childhood, sketching and drawing was my hobby. Unfortunately, I was a below-average student in academics because my interest and instinct were completely into sketching through imagination. I was very much into visualization, and things like video games, animation movies, and Sci-Fi movies from Hollywood were my topics of interest.
Somehow I completed my schooling and chose Multimedia and Animation in college. While in college, I came to know that my “drawing with imagination” is a stream termed “concept art”.
Well, suppose you want to be a concept artist and work professionally on video game studios or animation movies. In that case, you have to go abroad because, in India, the vacancy and scope are quite limited for this. Another trivia is if you want to work with foreign studios, you must pursue the course from them only, which was around USD 100k tuition fee plus the cost of living. But I wasn’t able to afford so much, and here the education loan was available up to 30lacs only.
So I did a specialization on 3D Animation (dropped the idea of concept art, then worked as a 3D artist in a VFX studio for some time, approximately around a year. At the age of 24, I left the job and became an assistant professor and taught concept designing in 3 Universities.
Along with that, I took up a 9-to-5 job, and that gave me a lot of time to explore in the field of concept design. It was my instinct to become a concept artist. At the age of 26, I left this 9-to-5 university job and moved to Mumbai. Initially, I worked as a set designer. Then, I finally got the position of a junior concept artist. Unfortunately, I was fired from that studio because I could not be in sync with the vision of my CEO, who was a senior concept artist. Finally, I started my startup named Kreiva Interactive, which is itself a concept art house now.
Unfortunately, I was fired from that studio because I was not able to sink with the vision of my CEO, who was a senior concept artist. Finally, I started my own startup named Kreiva Interactive, which is itself a concept art house now.
2. Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a job?
“Necessity is the mother of Invention“. I dreamt about a job sector where creative people can build their careers and live without any inferiority complex in a society full of doctors, engineers, and administrative servants (proper growth with a handsome package and not so many exploitations).
However, I experienced that creative streams were very limited in our country, both in education and jobs. Rather than grieving about it and having complaints in our mind, it’s better to put efforts and implement it on our own. So I did!
After the establishment of “Kreiva Interactive”, concept designers and illustration artists like me who can’t afford to pursue the course from abroad, have a cheaper avenue to fulfill their dreams here.
Along with that, it’s my aim to make a rich brainstorming stream in India. People are highly creative in India. Just because they are afraid of risks and are worried about achieving stability in life, they compromise with their talent.
So, I thought of doing something that helps creative people continue with their passion. Like the US, UK, China, Japan, and Singapore, India should become a Hub of concept designers.
Let me tell you that concept design for Entertainment Industry like Video Games, Animation, Feature films, and TV commercials is also known as Entertainment Design.
3. Describe the services that you offer to your customers and in what
way they are unique?
We are very much into core designing (not fashion design). We are into entertainment and industrial design that designs concepts, characters, environments, and props for feature films, animated movies, video games, and TV commercials.
It is a combination of creativity, brainstorming, and design. It needs the ideas of a creative person along with the skills of an artist. Every person thinks or visualizes differently; maybe they can imagine something closer to your vision, but not exact. That mostly happens in creative sectors like animation, feature films, video games.
The main challenge is to show the exact visual result or final prototype to the entire team involved in creating the effect. With the help of concept design, this chaos could be overcome, and time consumption can be reduced to a great extent to get the work done.
I want to add that we believe in creating cutting-edge quality and benchmarks in our services. Entertainment Design Firms are very rare worldwide, and the demand is too high from the Entertainment Industry. I think there are only 2 Entertainment Design firms in the country, including Kreiva.
4. What difficulties which you have faced or you are facing?
The list is too high, obviously, it’s a start-up firm, not very much recognized. Vision is very different, concepts art very different(in India). Not getting relevant manpower to multiply the productivity and serving more and more results and yes we do have solutions also, that we are working on it.
If you are not getting the relevant manpower, “yes it happens when you starting something which is the very new thing”, you have to generate the manpower by giving them training and providing them skills according to your requirement so it takes time also to bring that into shape.
You have to wait by having the patience to transform them in productive, this stream is not very much aware of the people so we are promoting the stream apart from doing projects, so this kind of complications we are facing to make it saturated.
5. How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?
If you take your challenges and milestones as a burden, you will be stressed, and there will be no treatment or solution for that. Why stress when you have established whatever you aimed for so long. Indeed, intense deadlines and workload are there, but it is something that I have chosen. So I have to handle this as a challenge and not a burden.
Yes, mentally, I can overcome stress, but it is also crucial to take care physically. I have to take care of my health with a proper sleep of 7-8 hours, Good diet (dal, veggies, chapattis and all), Yoga or 6-7 km of walking (approx. an hour it takes). There’s no denying the fact that I have to be physically fit.
6. How many hours a day do you work on an average & can you describe/outline your typical day?
I usually work for 8-9 hours, typically, not more than that. My daily routine is very normal and common, like any other person. Sometimes, when we have deadlines, I have to continuously work for 18-20 hours (but sometimes only), which barely happens; the rest 8-9 hours of investing in productivity are generally enough.
My office timings are from 11 am to 7 pm, but yes, I work on Saturdays and Sundays (working 3-4 hours from home).
7. In your opinion, what are the keys to success?
For every individual, the meaning of success is different (what you desire from life is the game changer). It can also be your life partner, iPhone, Car. Not stereotypically fame and money. To acquire success, you may have a consolidated Vision, Die-Hard Instinct, and Interest to achieve and the ability to work by quitting your lackadaisical attitude.
Skills and hard work are secondary; you will get it automatically when you come up with vision and instincts. I have seen many cases, especially the teenagers, their ambitions are very high, but efforts should also be high like the ambitions.
8. What advice would you give to someone starting out as an aspiring
entrepreneur?
Intense hard work is good, but channelizing that intense hard work on the right track will give you results. It would help if you had a consolidated idea of what to do before starting. Once your vision is strong, then go for it. But before starting it out, perform proper analysis rather than going by trends and believe in yourself and your vision.
Once your vision for your start will be consolidated, then go for it. but before starting it out. Do the proper analysis rather than choosing it by trend and believe in yourself and your vision.
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