Arvind Ghorwal | Founder and CEO | Elysian Studios
Anyone that is looking to go far, needs to adapt to the latest technological advancements, innovations, inventions, and will have to strive for the changes constantly. This only will ensure one’s existence further, be it a person or a company. The companies especially will require to change their operations as per the dynamic conditions prevailing in the market and industry. There have been many cases where the companies at the top of their game lost to the dynamics, left behind and even collapsed, just because they could not adopt the new technologies introduced. Go with the change is the go-to mantra nowadays for various firms.
Just like that, Virtual Reality (VR) space is spreading its name and making its mark on the world. The tech-enablers all over the world know it and are talking about this hot topic. The gaming industry is where VR is making its impact known. As gamers need to immerse themselves completely in their game, VR helps in just doing that in a way that was not possible before. Entertainment is the second industry where VR is considered to be providing a whole different experience altogether. Theories are if gaming and storytelling get combined together, it will create a new form of experience which will manipulate exactly what happens in the real world.
As we live in real life and the life we create for ourselves is nothing but a series of the choices we make. Similarly, this new experience will make the protagonist enhance his/her decision making skills and the stories will unfold as per the choices made by the players in real time.
“We have some very interesting VR content ideas, which will amaze our audiences. We would love to share more information about them in the near future,” expresses Arvind Ghorwal – Founder and CEO, Elysian Studios with joy. He is one such person exploring the uncharted territories of VR and determined to create experiences for people that has never really been seen or done before.
The Game Changer
Arvind started his entrepreneurial voyage back in the winter of 2015, that day he set a direction for his new life. Sometime later, the journey had to come to a pause, as the three other co-founders he on-boarded at the early stages of the business could not get along. Hence, Arvind sold his stakes of the company in less than six months of the operations to his co-founders. Yet, he received the necessary capital to embark on other journey which led to the emergence of Elysian Studios. As a solo founder, he realized that the work needs to be undertaken by him only. So, he started seeking wisdom regarding leadership and bliss. This made him travel to the spiritual places in India namely Kashi, Bodh Gaya, Rishikesh, Haridwar and many other related spots. Co-incidently, the forces of the Universe helped him discover the right path which presented an opportunity in catering to some international clients. “Entrepreneurial journey is tough, you can only sail through it, if you have the passion along with persistence, perseverance and patience,” tells Arvind. After that, the way ahead was more exciting and he started working with few of the biggest MNC’s in the country. “Once you have clarity that you are on the right path, you need to keep moving forward no matter what obstacles come up or how much time it takes,” he further adds.
Arvind is an alumnus from IIT Mumbai, where he initially started working in a start-up founded by his seniors and friends. There he led teams which executed the operations in Tier 1 cities in India. They used to work with the latest visual technologies like drones, 360, VR and AR. He trained over 500 data collectors, built an aerial team of more than 60 people (PAN India) from scratch and managed production assets worth Rs.1 Cr. He handled various projects focusing on innovative ways of capturing spaces. That is the reason he was so interested in Virtual Reality from the get-go. “We did a Pilot project in IIT Mumbai back in mid 2015, where we created one of the 1st 360 videos in India,” states Arvind. “We also created Google Streetview for IIT Mumbai and made an aerial film on the campus – IIT Bombay from the air,” he describes.
Changing Realities with Spirituality
Elysian Studios uses a unique and in-depth approach to the virtual reality (VR) storytelling, creating blissful VR experiences. Elysian means divinely inspired and is bringing back the ancient wisdom, taking someone beyond what one can perceive, opening up to the lands of mysticism and inspiring tales to reach the ultimate possibility there is. “We are one of the 1st VR studios in India who have created a VR series – Mystic Lands, which takes you to some of the most ancient, blissful and energetic lands,” claims Arvind boastfully. The VR experiences include places like Kashi – The city of Shiva, Bodh Gaya – The land of Buddha’s enlightenment and Rishikesh – Yoga capital of the world.
“Our VR films are receiving much love from various parts of the world and also getting shortlisted at various International Film Festivals while being featured on major VR platforms,” he proclaims further.
The studio takes care of the complete content creation pipeline including pre-production, production and post production. “We can add 360 spatial audio in the VR experiences,” explains the team of Elysian Studios.
As a creative engaging content developer, Elysian derives various methods to motivate its employees. “Creativity starts from the work space and it needs to be kept very lively,” says Arvind. The design of the workspace should inspire bliss, joy, happiness within everyone working there. Only happy people can reach their full creative potential and innovate. Culture is extremely important and is unique for every company.
“A shared set of values for everyone whom you work with, right from the beginning is very important,” he shares. Integrity is one of the key values which every good company should share. Similarly, the company has created a set of values which everyone follows. These key values has helped the studio in taking the right decisions in tough times.
