NewsVoir
New Delhi [India], February 19: India's growing startup ecosystem, booming sports leagues and expanding creative industries offer unprecedented opportunity but success, actor and investor Abhishek Bachchan said, ultimately rests on "authenticity and disciplined risk-taking".
Addressing the ET NOW Global Business Summit in New Delhi, Bachchan spoke about his journey from film star to entrepreneur and sports team owner, outlining a personal investment philosophy rooted less in trend-chasing and more in conviction.
"A lot of the products that interest me predominantly have something to do with the fact of whether I use them or not," he said, describing how several of his investments began with everyday consumer experiences rather than boardroom strategy.
At a time when information overload and celebrity endorsements dominate marketing, Bachchan emphasized the importance of credibility. "Authenticity of storytelling and authenticity of intent is something that goes a long way," he said. "It'll be dishonest of me to try and sell a product if I don't use it myself."
On risk management, he offered a clear rule of thumb: "If you can't afford it yourself, don't get into it."
"That's the greatest assessment for risk for me," he said. "Can I afford it? If I don't, then the risk goes up exponentially."
On artificial intelligence, Bachchan struck a cautious tone. "AI scares me," he said candidly. While he sees benefits in areas such as animation and special effects, he warned that misuse could be disruptive in creative professions.
"There's an imperfection to humanity, which is what we enjoy watching in film," he said of fully AI-generated content. "Somewhere there's no soul."
Rather than trying to replicate Western or Korean storytelling formulas, he argued, Indian cinema should double down on its own identity. "The minute we compromise our Indianness, I think we lose out," he said. Citing the global success of films like RRR, he added that being "unabashedly Indian" is what sets Indian cinema apart internationally.
If Bachchan spoke about authenticity in business and cinema, the summit's next session explored authenticity of a different kind: the inner kind. From disciplined risk-taking to emotional resilience, the conversation shifted from boardrooms to ragas, examining how staying true to oneself matters just as much in personal well-being as it does in investment decisions.
India's classical music tradition may be centuries old, but for sitarist Rishabh Rikhiram Sharam, it has become a personal tool for navigating modern mental health challenges.
Speaking at a live session at ET NOW Global Business Summit, that blended conversation with performance, Sharma reflected on how music helped him through a difficult period during the COVID-19 pandemic. "I think music was very instrumental, no pun intended," he quipped. "But I think it was a combination of therapy, music, and working out that really helped me get out of that phase that I was in during COVID."
While he stops short of prescribing music as therapy, he is clear about its impact on his own life. "I feel like music has been keeping me and my mental health in check," he added.
That personal journey has now evolved into a larger mission: creating immersive sitar-led experiences focused on mental well-being.
Audience feedback has reinforced his belief in music's emotional power. "We receive so many testimonies and so many personal experiences like people having emotional releases at the shows," he said. "Whatever happens, happens in that moment."
Beyond performance, Rishabh is also exploring the science behind sound. He revealed that ongoing research is examining brainwaves and ECG responses to sitar music. The findings, however, will take time. "It's still a work in progress. It'll still be a couple of years before we can get real, actual data."
Though devotional music now plays a larger role in his repertoire, he resists being boxed into a single genre. "Don't get me wrong, I'm super hip-hop myself," he said, adding that he listens to Kanye West and Playboi Carti. But he believes the growing youth interest in devotional music reflects broader shifts. "Gen Zs are drinking less. They are focusing more on health... I think this was a natural by-product."
As the evening closed with chants of "Om Namah Shivaya" and a live rendering of "Shiv Kailash," Sharma left the audience not with spectacle, but with stillness: a reminder that in an age of noise, pause itself can be powerful.
"We are so overstimulated all the time," he said, adding, "These experiences come like a pause for you."
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