TED Community » Mukul Deora

About Me

Musician, singer, conceptual artist, film producer and businessman.
Studied Business Management at Kings College, London.
Worked with Bertelsmann, Germany, as the Assistant to the Ceo, Storage Media.
On returning to India:
I co-founded Bhavishyavani- Indias first dance music collective in 1999, held some of Indias first experimental sound performances in 2002.
Started Mipak Polymers, which became one of Western Indias largest packaging firms, with 5 factories and over 300 employees. Sold Mipak in 2007.
Released my Debut album, Stray (which reached number 12 in the charts) in 2006. Stray also received critical acclaim from the international press.
I have since performed at the Tate Modern and the Serpentine Gallery, as well as several art/cultural spaces in India.
I had my first conceptual art show last year at the Ashish Balram Gallery. It was called The Soft Metronome, and consisted of sculptural installations in silver and blood.
Launched the UKs Cultural Olympics with a sound and light show last year.
Launched Dudup, my record label, as a platform for emerging experimental musicians at the Serpentine Gallery.
Am working on several real estate development projects in Maharashtra currently.
Released my second album, What Heart, last month.

My second conceptual art show at Volte is a participatory experiment. On entering the gallery, the audience was instructed to take a shuttle bus to an undisclosed location. They arrived at a derelict mill compound where they were asked to sign a disclaimer stating that they accepted full responsibility for any injury that might occur. They were then led to the scene which consisted of a car and sledgehammers. A situation was thus created, where the audience joined the experiment by smashing the car.
It became an energetic, passionate, struggle, in which extremes of emotion were given free expression against that quintessential symbol of modernity, the automobile. It is currently showing at Volte, Mumbai.

I recently started Watchtower Entertainment, a film production co. We make edgy, script-based Hindi movies for the expanding Indian urban audience. Our first film goes on the floor in Feb.