'It's a relationship, not a one-night stand'

Photographer and celebrity manager atul kasbekar gives tips on the tricky business of handling stars as well as their endorsements tantrums and controversiesAtul Kasbekar might have begun as a star photographer but today he manages a host of celebrities through his firm Bling From handling celebrity endorsements to advising them on how to project their image and tackle controversies Atul handholds his clients through their public lives No wonder then that he includes stars Deepika Padukone Shahid Kapur Sonam Kapoor Abhay Deol Konkana Sensharma Irrfan Khan Arjun Rampal Jacqueline Fernandes cricketers Zaheer Khan and Jonty Rhodes and models Monikangana Dutta and Sahil Shroff Here Atul lets us in on the secrets of managing a celebrityu00a0 Juggle your rolesYou need to be a cross between a great white shark a zen monk court jester Mother Teresa a shoulder to cry on and a financial whiz You change your hat depending on the situation Never switch off your phoneYour phone is never off neither mine nor the agents that work with me If were on a flight the call will be diverted for those two or nine hours Your celebrity should always always always be able to reach you Machines work for me my agents have no life I tell them Join me well take good care of you But I expect you to be super hardworking and intensely loyalBuild contacts EverywhereAccess You have to continually build access in the most remote or bizarre areas For example when youre at a hotel its standard operating procedure for the agents to meet everyone from the GM to the front office manager take their cards so that the next time youre at that hotel if you need something you know whom to contact Stars have quirks and you have to deal with that so you need to have access to all kinds of people to make the stars life easier Cops customs real estate agentsu00e2u0080u00a6 you have to build contacts literally everywhere Have visions that matchAcross the board surround yourself with good decent human beings Our clients recognise what we do and value it that much more Building a relationship and sustaining that is an art form We routinely say no to celebrities if we feel our visions dont match Only six brands per starWhen we marry a brand its not a onenight stand its a relationship We always tell our clients to not feel like theyve done a favour to the brand by taking their money If the brand fit doesnt work we will walk away With all our clients weve capped their endorsements at six so that theres longevity and you dont run the risk of overexposure Then you dont give value to the brand If the commercial doesnt look good you dont look good We dont let them sign a seventh You dont have time for more Tiger Woods and Roger Federer dont endorse more than four brands its not like they cant do 14Most controversies are blown out of proportionIts interesting that you spend so much time making someone famous and then you have to do damage control Ninetynine out of 100 controversies are blown out of proportionu00a0But we vet our stars lines so the media cant take a line out of context If theyre going to a function we check what theyre going to say cancel out lines or ask them to stick to something We look at everything their jewellery their clothes We have a bank of six designers with usu00a0u00a0 Dont push your star If a celebrity is upset about something you have to assure them that you can sort it out One of our stars was once offered a prohibitive sum of money to perform for New Years The star said I was planning to spend this time with my family and take them on vacation So we told the client that it wouldnt worku00a0Im willing to wager that 99 per cent managers would tell their client to do the performance change in the car on the way to the airport and upgrade your familys stay to the presidential suite Have the time of your life plus money in your bank But for us once youve said no its no At one level you need to prioritise whats important and were happy to complyKeep an eye out for brands that fitWe routinely contact brands that we think would fit our clients Were very proactive We have a oneline tagline for our celebrities We need to be a bit of a Nostradamus so that we can tell our clients what the future holds We pitched for Sonam Kapoor for Oreal We said Check her out shes stunningly beautiful Heres an opportunity for you to lock her in early when shes not taken over by so many brands Real life images can help correspond to their brands Abhay Deol shows that hes a unique slot by himself It looks like he wants to tread his own path People respect that I find him genuinely interesting He has a fabulous sense of humour is a decent honest hardworking guy and is effortlessly cool Hes refreshingly wonderful Hes a responsible rebel thats a great unique space He has a huge following in a sub30 levelBuild your brand even if youre a private personGreta Garbo never signed Pepsi If youve signed with us wed like you to reach your maximum financial potential and build your brand We see ourselves as brand managers If you dont want to make any money outside of your films then we shouldnt be talking Koko Konkana Sensharma is painfully shy and private Shes a real person with so much credibility that brands see that I see a lot of potential in her and weve closed a few things Shes enjoying the process now Be a super patient bulldogThe one thing that helped me manage peopleu00e2u0080u00a6 patience You have a conversation with a brand and sometimes it fructifies six months later You just have to be a super patient bulldog or a terrier I also enjoy people But thats a natural trait not an acquired skill