As part of the latest addition to this exclusive interview series, Ada, a seasoned emcee, emphasises the essential qualities that define a successful anchor and how she juggles between her roles as an emcee, dancer and healing therapist. As a well-respected professional in the media and entertainment industry, she has also played many roles in many web series and TV shows, her latest work being as Ageel in Balveer S3 and S4. With an experience of anchoring over 2000 events, Ada discusses her views on preparing for different types of events, adapting to emerging trends in the industry and offering advice for aspiring emcees and event planners.
Edited excerpts:
In your opinion, what qualities are essential for a successful anchor or emcee?
To begin with, he/she has to be a people person, and by nature should be loving towards people. Be it on-stage or off-stage, an anchor wants to be with people, around people and wants to interact with people.
Secondly, whether multi-lingual or not, they have to be brilliant orators because people want to listen to great orators.
Thirdly, it is about content. A good anchor is well aware of all that is happening around them. I have an experience of a decade in this industry, but even now, I work each day on my content. I keep myself abreast of the recent happenings and find a way to present serious matters in a light-hearted manner.
The presentation also matters, and so does the anchor’s energy. It is important to note that anchoring is not a part-time job. It is a full-time job, a full-fledged career and it is a very extensive effort that you require to be a successful anchor. Simply doing announcements is an anchor’s choice, but when it comes to full-fledged anchoring, an anchor holds the show together – an anchor decides the direction of the show and what the attendees of the event carry back with them – which is essentially the foundation of the event.
How do you prepare for different types of events, such as corporate conferences, product launches or weddings?
Beginning with weddings, it is a very vast canvas that an emcee has because he/she can speak about almost anything and everything. But the difference in corporate events is that an emcee needs to have a clear demarcation of what he/she can speak and what they can’t speak about. It’s almost like walking on the edge of a sword. For instance, in corporate events, you can be hot and sexy, but you can’t be sleazy. You can have a good sense of humour, but some topics are a complete no-no. You can talk about success stories, but you can’t mention about the competitive brands. You can use entertainment, but you can’t use copyrighted entertainment.
In weddings, you need to have a plethora of content. In corporate events, 70 per cent of it is a readymade show, 30 per cent of it is about interacting with the people at the event and being spontaneous. Contrary to that, 80 per cent of the show is spontaneous and 20 per cent of the show is about the details of the particular wedding – you have to understand relationships and weddings to be able to be an anchor for those events. It is about how an anchor carries himself/herself as a person at a wedding – you have to be sensible, sensitive and emotional for anchoring an event, which helps in deciding content which is humorous and entertaining.
You are an anchor, actor, dancer and healing therapist. How do you juggle these roles, in a balanced manner?
I work 14-15 hours a day. I also have a breakdown once in a while and rush away for a holiday when such a situation happens. But I make sure I invest a substantial of time in my work every single day – as it is about looking into the content, costumes, back-end, marketing, performances, etc. From every aspect, there are a lot of points to take care of – and I make sure I balance my work well.
In a month, I work on eight or nine shows/events i.e. eight or nine days. Within these, there are several times when I pick up two or three shows on the same day too.
I only play leads on television, so for that, my schedule is confirmed for 25 days. I remember, last year I worked with them continuously for nine months, and I was only able to take out a time slot of five to seven days, so I was only able to take up around five to seven shows. The positive side of this is that I was able to work on fresh and better content, and it doesn’t lead to burnout. So that is something beautiful about it. But those days, again, I would shoot for 13-14 hours a day.
About my healing therapy, I conduct a weekly meditation course, which is usually done on the phone. I also do a lot of group sessions, which I do every quarter and are spread over four to five days.
I am able to juggle everything because I have people allotted for everything that I take up. I have separate teams for handling my costumes, social media, the production of my healing therapy sessions, my manager handles my acting assignments etc. The team can handle the other tasks and I can focus on my creativity.
What upcoming trends do you see in the event-hosting industry and how do you plan on adapting to them?
We have observed over some time, that anchors with multiple skill sets are doing well now. I offer anchoring, dancing and healing therapies. So whenever I go for conferences, I make sure that I conduct a yoga session to kick start a two-day conference. When I go to dealer’s meets, they do like to party and shake a leg, and I plan those accordingly. I also plan dance sequences with my background dancers, and which are integrated as part of the event.
Technology, as another factor, is always going to be in. I believe scriptwriting has become easier with AI and a lot of other tools, but I haven’t tried it yet. I still write my scripts, because if I don’t feel my script, my energy doesn’t flow in my words. But nowadays, information is easily available, which is a good thing.
I feel that when AI is used for scripts like a lot of anchors do, it doesn’t sound very convincing and seems very hollow. Everything is about energy – it needs to be impactful. Needless to say, technology is something which everyone would need to adapt to.
Do you have any tips for aspiring anchors or emcees who want to excel in this field?
Anchors/emcees need to work on themselves – they need to be fit physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. This is obviously because, as I said earlier also, anchoring is the only profession where an anchor/emcee takes himself/herself as a person on stage, as part of the profession. Every anchor/emcee would have their distinct way of presenting the same thing.
As an anchor/ emcee, fitness is important as it is about an aura, vibrancy and energy. Emotional and mental fitness is important and an anchor/emcee cannot carry their personal emotional and mental baggage on stage. For instance, my dad passed away in 2018 – on the second day we did the burial. I returned to Mumbai in the evening and took a flight to Bangkok to anchor a wedding – I hosted a sangeet ceremony, the celebration of which continued throughout the night. I did not cry for three whole days of the wedding event – I cried only after the event ended. When you’re up on the stage, you’re supposed to be in the moment, and you’re in your powerful space.
As an anchor/emcee, people come to attend an event/show to listen to you, and give their precious time to you – they should walk back with a smile on your face and remember you, which is very important. Moreover, an anchor/emcee is hired by a client for a purpose – the purpose needs to be fulfilled.
In short, an anchor should be ready with his/her content, should be fit from all aspects, and should love his/her job.
Can you share some advice for event planners or organisers on how to collaborate effectively with emcees for successful events?
A lot of anchors/emcees talk about the nervous energy that they feel when they go up on stage. I have done more than 2000 live shows and counting, but even today, I feel that tinge of nervousness each time I go up on stage. To be honest, that feeling is important.
Citing an instance, I was doing an event for Vijaya Bank in Agra and Amitabh Bachchan was present there – he was their brand ambassador at the time. I was hosting the show with Aman Verma. I went up to Mr Bachchan and asked him for a brief, if any, with regard to the event. He said something which I liked – he spoke about the nervousness that he feels before doing every shot/scene of every film that he does and which he believes converts into brilliant performances, thereafter. He meant that if that nervousness didn’t exist, he wouldn’t be able to perform well – therefore, that nervousness was essential. So anchors/emcees shouldn’t fear that nervous energy – the day that nervous energy is not felt by an anchor/emcee, it should be worrisome for him/her.
Also, a lot of agencies are coming up – with every nook and corner of the city brimming with these. Firstly, the briefing by the agency needs to be on point – a miss by just one degree, and the show would head towards another direction. Appropriate briefings are important – anchors/emcees need to ask questions.
As a part of the briefing, the culture of the company is a part of it. And even though I make sure the script is written by me, I always ensure that the agency provides me the information with regard to the company – I frame that company information in my words to make it a part of my script, but it is essential to have these details as every company is different from another. Some companies might be conservative, some might be semi-conservative, they might have a certain way of addressing their people, etc. For example, at Honda, they do not use titles as prefixes such as ‘Shri’ or ‘Mister’, they say ‘San’.
An anchor/emcee is also able to decipher the education level. I will be aware of what kind of humour and vocabulary needs to be used. What if I use a vocabulary of a high level, and people are not able to understand it? Or what if I use an average kind of vocabulary and people think it is kind of an average job done? So, it is always preferred that the company provides a synopsis of the language to be used and the script, which is approved by them. This is so that you do not have a hit-and-miss.
Sometimes a company provides a link of the company or a Wikipedia page for reference. It is almost like giving all the limbs and body parts, but not the soul. Discussing and providing information about the culture of the company is like providing the soul of the company or of a family (when it is about wedding events/shows).
Another essential element which seems to be missing backstage in most events now is a person from the agency. Even though everything is in order, there needs to be an agency person who helps coordinate everything between the anchor and the console and can give me a cue when it comes to the flow of the event. This is the one person who would be the only one in touch with me backstage concerning the running of the event, and if any updates need to be provided need to be done through that one person so that the coordination remains smooth and confusion of any type can be avoided.
Energy matters a lot. No matter how good an emcee’s content is, if the energy doesn’t exist – the balance won’t work. As an anchor/emcee, he/she has a limited amount of time to hit the bull’s eye. A piece of content said with the right amount of emotion and intensity can accurately capture the attention of the attendees of an event.
Lastly, what legacy do you hope to leave in the event-hosting industry?
As anchors/emcees, we all have a purpose in our lives. An emcee can do some screaming and yelling for 15 minutes, but after that, he/she better have something concrete to say. That kind of thought only comes in when the anchor/emcee treats it as the purpose of his/her life.
My job as an anchor/emcee, I feel, is to make sure that all the people that I have met at the events that I have conducted have a smile on their face and remember me for the work that I have done. It is about the moments that pass by. It is not important about what you gather, it is about what you scatter – and I hope that in bringing more smiles to the fore, I can do my job well.
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