From Priyanka Chopra and Kareena Kapoor to Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Rohini Iyer, Founder of Raindrop Media, is in charge of managing the reputations of several Bollywood A-listers. At a time when social media minutely scrutinises every move of celebrities, Iyer often finds herself on the edge, trying to fire-fight situations. She tries to keep calm at all times by telling herself not to take failures to heart. At the same time, she is careful to not get blinded by success. "Sometimes people taste success quite early in their career and sometimes failure. At both points they let it mess with their head and that I feel is the worst thing any professional can do. You need to be able to handle success and failure in equal measure, and with a pinch of salt."
Iyer says she loves challenges. "If it's not challenging, I won't take it up. Every single person I have worked with, every client and brand has been challenging for me and that's the way I like it."
A film journalist-turned publicist, when Iyer got into this profession in 2003, reputation management was a loosely used phrase and most got their personal assistants to take care of it. Iyer has played a significant role in making it a full-fledged business. "When I entered this business, reputation management was unorganised. It was a new time for the film industry, the digital age was coming in, studios were coming in, everything was new. I just happened to be at the right place, at the right time."
Iyer's first role as a publicist was with Farah Khan's blockbuster Main Hoon Na in 2003. Since then, she has secured her place as Bollywood's most sought after publicist.