What were you doing during your teenage years? Running around playing outdoors? Lying to parents to go meet a new love interest? Worrying about failing the test you haven’t prepared for yet? Basically, the typical adolescent behaviour and worries all of us have. Almost all of us. There are some young achievers who like make head-starts into adulting and when it pulls off, they turn out to be real heroes.
One such person is Hong Kong based entrepreneur turned actor, Aanchal Wadhwani 🇭🇰. The 27-year old founded her first company way back in 2010 when she was still in her teens and from there, her career has been an upward graph. Read Scoops didn’t want to miss out on the opportunity of featuring her on our platform, so we decided to go ahead and have an exclusive chat with the young business tycoon.
Her journey as an entrepreneur began a decade ago with Matryoshka Studios, a photo studio covering fashion, beauty, product and advertorial projects. Aanchal and her Matryoshka team handle everything from art direction to model scouting, makeup artists to hair stylists and to high-end retouching, props and studio rental. You can read all about this company on their website or Instagram handle.
Sindhi by origin, Aanchal was born and brought up in Hong Kong and is a multi-talented individual. Always being drawn to the creative world as a child, she spent her weekends in high school learning fine art. When it was time to further study, she did a degree in Fashion Design and followed that up with a further 3 years in Fashion Design, Styling and Promotion.
Founder of Matryoshka Studios, co-founder of STAGE Creatives, co-founder of Academy of Design in Hong Kong and now also exploring her options as an actress. Her passion for fashion has helped her excel across multiple fields, while still being very much at the beginning of her career. For complete insights on this career, keep reading for our complete interview with Aanchal Wadhwani…
Aanchal Wadhwani social profiles 🌐:
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW with Aanchal Wadhwani…
Hi Aanchal. Tell us about how you got into different professional fields like photography, acting and more.
“Being quite curious and always on the look out for a challenge, I tried my hand at all things fashion related during my studies. I started with designing clothes and jewelry. Shortly after, I reached out to photographers, stylists and other industry related professionals to lend my designs for photo shoots. Slowly I got into styling myself and was invited by several photographers to be their model. From there, I picked up retouching as a hobby and eventually started retouching for photographers. That led me towards photography, and that stuck with me ever since! Acting was serendipitous. It’s an industry that honestly just kept coming my way without me actively looking for it, but I fell in love with it.”
People don’t usually begin working by the age that you founded Matryoshka Studios…
“At 16, I was in my first year of Fashion Design and I wanted to get an internship with a designer to learn how the business works first hand. No matter how many companies I applied to, I was never given that opportunity. I understand now that I had zero experience, barely any portfolio and nothing to offer the companies at that stage, but at that time I was determined to find a way to learn how the market works, so I started a handmade jewelry brand called ‘Matryoshka’.”
“I learned a lot in the year that I was designing, making and selling jewelry and, as mentioned above, had also been simultaneously experimenting with other areas of fashion. I picked up photography and started taking photos for my own jewelry brand. A lot of people reached out for photography including a modelling agency, which was where my career as a photographer began. Eventually, I changed ‘Matryoshka Jewelry’ to ‘Matryoshka Photography’. I didn’t own my own studio until I was 22. I had started Academy of Design with a business partner and at the Academy I had a small studio. Only then did I change the name to ‘Matryoshka Studios’. Now we have a much bigger space!”
What about acting? How did your first assignment come along?
“I was scouted for a local TV channel, RTHK, for their program Y2K, at 18. The program was focused on design in Hong Kong and while the other people featured in the show were actors, I was studying my second degree in fashion and they wanted to feature me as a real designer. The show was fully in Cantonese and was aired on prime time TV. It was half a documentary covering my daily life as a design student, but a large part of it required me to act. It was a huge learning experience and my first time acting, let alone having to do it in Cantonese (which is not even my native language).”
You recently shot DBS Sparks with one of the biggest sporting personalities in the world!
“My grandfather was a HUGE cricket fan and used to watch it on TV. He used to try and explain the sport to me (which I don’t understand till date), and he would talk a lot about Mr. Sachin Tendulkar, so it was really an honour to meet him and share a screen with him. The first time I met him was while filming DBS Sparks Season 1 – Episode 9 and 10 – the two finale episodes for the season. The second time we worked together was for our second season of Sparks. The episode has just been released and focuses on gender equality. It’s amazing that we had Mr. Tendulkar on this particular episode because it’s such an important topic. With his involvement, it will reach a wider audience and hopefully influence a stronger mindset.”
“He is a very down to earth person with a kind personality. He took the time to introduce himself to the cast, and watched all our previous episodes prior to shooting so he knew who we all were. It’s surreal to meet a celebrity who already knows who you are.”
It's me, @sachintendulkar and a very handsome bearded man.#sachin #sachintendulkar #godofcricket
Posted by Aanchal Wadhwani – Matryoshka – 華美詩 on Wednesday, July 25, 2018
It was 3 years ago that Wadhwani was scouted to play Riya Rai, one of the main characters in a mini-series for DBS Bank titled ‘Sparks’. The first season features 10 episodes with Asian celebrities like Adrian Pang, Michael Wong and of course, Sachin Tendulkar. Currently, 6 episodes have been released for the second season, the most recent one being shot in Mumbai with the cricketing legend himself. You can watch that episode here:
Apart from Sparks, Wadhwani has been featured on ChannelNews Asia’s docu-series titled ‘Indian Diaspora in Asia’ where she shares her story on being a young entrepreneur in Hong Kong, while also starring in local movie ‘From Vegas to Macau 3’ alongside celebrities like Chow Yuen Fat and Andy Lau.
She has appeared in ‘The Leakers’ alongside Cheung Chi Lam, while also doing a a fashion film directed by the famous photographer and director, Wing Shya. Of course, endorsements are a key part of an actor’s career and over time, she has managed to add massive brands like Colgate, Manulife, Elle Magazine, JW Marriott, Facebook and Oppo to her portfolio as well.
Aanchal, tell us more about STAGE Creatives, which you also co-founded.
“I partnered with 2 other creatives to co-found STAGE Creatives, which is a creative production house covering photography, videography, film-making, animation and illustration on a larger and bigger scale of production. The services for our clients include everything right from pre-production to production to post-production. I am the Executive Producer on the team and help oversee each production while maintaining communication with the clients to ensure everything fits with their branding and identity. You can read more on STAGE Creatives here.”
What about Academy of Design? What services does this company offer?
“My partner and I co-founded Academy of Design in Hong Kong where design related short courses and workshops are organized at low costs to promote the art industry in either English or Cantonese. It’s a place where those who are interested can come to learn and sharpen their skills, while also getting certified by us upon completion, and our most popular course so far has been Pattern Making and Sewing. If anyone is interested, they can get more information about us on our website, through our Facebook page or even through our Instagram handle.”
Having tried your hand at multiple professions so far, what would you say is your career goal?
“My goal is to expand my businesses to the rest of Asia. At the moment, most of my work as a photographer is in Hong Kong while acting has taken me around Asia, but I would love to take on larger projects across the continent!”
If you follow her work, you know how talented this girl is. She mentioned her goal of reaching out to the Asian market and I wouldn’t be surprised if she gets there in super quick time. On behalf of the team at Read Scoops, I would like to thank her for her time and wish her all the success possible for future endeavours. For all updates on her journey, follow her on Instagram @therealaanchal!
– Dwayne Fernandes, Read Scoops
(Twitter – @dwayneeeboy, Instagram – @dwayneeeboy)
