The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) southern region has announced the winners of the Emerging Entrepreneurs Award 2011 on Friday, 23rd March 2012 at Hilton, Chennai. Creator of Chhota Bheem and CEO of Green Gold Animation, Rajiv Chilakalapudi was felicitated with an Emerging Entrepreneur Award in Concept and Execution. The award has been instituted to showcase the region’s emerging entrepreneurs and their innovative business concepts. The event was organized in association with The Hindu Business Line.
For the Awards, 200 entries were received from across the Southern states. Of these, 26 entrepreneurs had been shortlisted by an eminent award panel based on the criteria laid down by the Knowledge Partner, Grant Thornton.
Talking to AnimationXpress.com Rajiv shares, “It’s an honour to win such a prestigious award, and I am really thrilled and excited. The fact that the jury of such high stature has selected me means that they have faith in me and they trust my abilities. For me, this means more responsibility and I will not let them down. After 11 hard & long years of entrepreneurship it feels great to be rewarded. I thank my parents, my wife, team at Green Gold, team at Turner, Chhota Bheem and the millions of Kids who love him for all their love and support throughout.”
The CII has instituted the awards with an aim to turn the spotlight on the region’s budding entrepreneurs so that they emerge as national and global players. It is the culmination of a process that began almost nine months back, when the idea to recognize emerging entrepreneurs in the southern region was first mooted. The south was economically vibrant and entrepreneurship was thriving.
The jury and the CII task force had a number of rounds of discussions on the eligibility criteria- whether size should be one; if so, how big or small should it be. The jury looked for some sparkle in applicants and whether there was some cutting edge work they were doing. The jury looked at other issues such as is the entrepreneur willing to take the risk of scaling; does the entrepreneur have a larger plan, especially of going global; is there a team and a succession plan in place or is it individual-driven; and does the individual have a dream and is willing to execute it.
The CII Regional Emerging Entrepreneurs Award 2011 that Rajiv has bagged for ‘Concept and Execution’ comes over a decade of entrepreneurship, he says. The first generation entrepreneur, Rajiv has achieved the rare distinction of putting an Indian animation hero on the international arena. ‘Chhota Bheem’ is the popular face of Green Gold Animation, which he started in 2001.
The previous edition, the Emerging Entrepreneurs Awards in 2010, was restricted to Tamil Nadu and this year it was expanded to cover the four southern States and Puducherry.