5 Minutes with… Charu Menon
When you have over 12 years of experience in film, TV, advertising, and digital content production across Australia, India, and South East Asia, they don’t just call you the managing director and executive producer at Heckler Singapore. They call you: Charu Menon.
Renowned for award-winning TVC campaigns, Charu is also a producer of impactful documentaries, including ‘By The River’ – an exploration of Varanasi's death hotels – which garnered international acclaim and prestigious awards.
Speaking with LBB, Charu discusses her unique inspirations, from childhood storytelling to award-winning documentaries. She shares insights into the complexities of content creation, fostering a collaborative environment, and advocating for diversity and inclusion in the media industry.
LBB> Have you always been a creative person, even as a child?
Charu> I think we are all creative as children. I loved storytelling and writing even as a child. I remember writing silly little stories for children’s magazines. Stories around spiders and mosquitoes and worms. Oddly, quite a lot of them are set in the insect kingdom, come to think of it now.
LBB> Your documentary exploring the hotels in Varanasi has garnered international attention and awards. What inspired you to embark on this project, and what challenges did you encounter during its production?
Charu> I’ve always been curious about death and the rituals and belief systems that surround it in different cultures and religions. I found the concept of death-hotels in the ancient city of Varanasi, India, fascinating. Some Hindus believe that if they die in these hotels, they can escape the endless cycle of birth and rebirth and attain eternal liberation or moksha.
I’d been exploring this subject for years when I found a perfect collaborator and director in Dan Braga. The film was very much a labour of love. Shifting from advertising to documentary-making for a few months was deeply enriching and completely terrifying. We approached the film with the discipline of shooting a TVC. It helped us be efficient with our time and frugal spending. But we were working with a guerrilla crew, everyone wearing multiple hats and working insanely long hours in 45-degree heat. We had all kinds of challenges, from being hit up for bribes at certain locations (after securing permission), to having my DOP in the hospital on the fourth day of the shoot to malfunctioning equipment.
But somehow, we got through it all, and the result was magic. I’m super stoked with what we created and the attention and awards it got.
LBB> You've worked with a diverse range of clients, from global brands like Nike and Pepsi to producing documentaries exploring cultural phenomena. How do you approach each project differently, considering your clients' unique needs and objectives?
Charu> As a producer, advertising is an excellent training ground. With high-end commercials, you usually deal with talent that are the best at what they do, often specialists in their trade. You learn to bring a director’s vision to life while managing agency and client expectations, working within the budget framework and the (usually insane) timeline. The level of granularity in advertising where every frame is discussed and dissected is excellent training for documentaries because it teaches you to be obsessed with craft.
In the doco world, things are less prescriptive and much broader (especially if you are not working on a commission-based project with a pre-sale). For a producer, it’s definitely the more creative avenue and opens up more possibilities. But it can feel unnerving because you are starting with a blank canvas. If you can approach it with the discipline of advertising in terms of process but embrace the creative chaos and freedom of docos, it’s the best of both worlds!
LBB> As the managing director and executive producer at Heckler Singapore, how do you foster a creative and collaborative environment within the team to ensure the successful execution of projects?
Charu> To be completely honest, I don’t think I do much at all. I’ve only executed the adage of ‘hire smart people and get out of the way’. We’ve been fortunate to attract some amazing talent, both local and international, who are the most self-motivated, remarkable, and sparkly people around. We have great relationships with our agency and client partners. There is a lot of trust and a hunger to create memorable work.
I guess the only policy we try to maintain is a no-dickhead policy.
We work in a high-pressure industry and push our artists to produce great ideas and beautiful pictures on demand. The least we can do is be nice to each other. Life’s too short for bullies. We’re fiercely protective of our culture and don’t tolerate any disrespect. I’d like to think we create a safe environment for the team to be creatively inspired, have room for play, experiment, explore and create great work.
LBB> Being named a finalist in B&T's Women in Media Awards and receiving the NSW Premier's Multicultural Media Awards are remarkable achievements. How do you use your platform and influence to advocate for diversity and inclusion in the media industry?
Charu> I think we need a lot more nuance in the conversations around diversity and inclusion. It needs to go beyond tokenism. I try to use platforms I have access to to advocate for inclusive recruitment and diversity. We certainly need more women in the VFX industry. We need training employee resource groups and industry initiatives that foster the right culture within our worlds. It’s going to take a village to make meaningful change.
LBB> With your extensive experience spanning film, TV, advertising, and digital content across different countries, what trends do you foresee shaping the future of content creation, and how do you stay ahead of the curve?
Charu> There’s never been a more exciting time for storytelling in general. We’re only starting to discover how transformative generative AI tools will be for our industry. The convergence of gaming, tech, entertainment, and commerce has led to some path-breaking, genre-defying content. I try to keep up in all the usual ways—by reading and fervently stalking all the experts and trailblazers on various platforms.
LBB> You've been involved in judging prestigious awards. What criteria do you look for when evaluating submissions, particularly in the direction Category, and what advice would you give aspiring filmmakers and producers?
Charu> Sitting in jury rooms and absorbing all the discourse has been my favourite. I’ve had the privilege of judging incredible jury presidents like Kim Gehrig at Cannes and Sara Dunlop at D&AD. From what I’ve learnt, I’d say particularly for the craft category that the judges are looking for something that feels fresh and current, genuinely moves you and where the specific craft that the work has been entered for shines in the piece.
LBB> Your experience spans across Australia, India, and Southeast Asia. How do you adapt to different regions' cultural nuances and preferences while maintaining consistent creativity and quality in your work?
Charu> The culture is definitely different and we adapt to the market we are in. I think the pace of the industry in South East Asia and India is pretty full on, so the volume of work you churn out is huge compared to say, Australia. But at the end of the day, good clients want to create great work, and high craft is a universal language.
LBB> What advice would you give aspiring producers and filmmakers looking to make a meaningful impact in the industry, especially those interested in exploring diverse storytelling and tackling social issues through their work?
Charu> It’s not for the faint-hearted, but it's immensely rewarding. There are not a lot of clearly laid out, concrete pathways to success in this field – a lot of it is figuring it out as you go. You need a pretty high pain tolerance and the ability to dig deep when things don’t go according to plan (which is 70% of the time), but at the end of the day, if you get it right, it’s gonna all feel pretty worth it :)
