The crown sits in a drawer somewhere in Shreya Mehrotra’s family villa in Kanpur, gathering dust. Once, it was everything: the validation of months of preparation, the promise of international stages. In 2020, at 24, Shreya seemed unstoppable. Fresh from NIFT Patna with a textile design degree and the GIEP beauty pageant crown, she was poised for greatness. Then the pandemic hit. But if you think this is another lockdown sob story, you’re wrong. This is about what happens when someone refuses to stay down.
While others were binge-watching Netflix, Shreya was plotting her next move. Beauty pageants had always been a detour; her real dream was the boardroom. With characteristic audacity, she launched Sixty5 Visions, a design and marketing agency, from her bedroom in Bangalore. “I had this naive confidence,” she laughs now. “Two clients, my parents’ blessing, and absolutely no idea what I was doing.” For eighteen months, she threw everything at the agency: under-quoting projects, overcommitting on deliverables, working eighteen-hour days until burnout became her middle name. By 2022, the math was brutal. The agency was history.
What followed wasn’t pretty. Shreya spent months questioning everything. But instead of hiding from failure, she decided to dissect it. She dove into entertainment, appeared in advertisements and web series, and discovered she had an eye for visual storytelling. The breakthrough came at JujuBaby Music, where she landed a role as AI Director for India’s biggest singers. Suddenly, her unique blend of design intuition and technological curiosity wasn’t just useful; it was revolutionary. “That’s when I realized failure hadn’t ended my story,” she reflects. “It had just rewritten the genre.”
By 2024, Shreya was ready to bet on herself again. This time was different. She’d learned to quote properly, manage expectations, and recognize her unique value. When she met composer Gourov Dasgupta, they saw the future. Cyberpunk Studio emerged as India’s first AI-driven production house, crafting visual experiences that blur the line between imagination and reality. Partnerships with Google, cutting-edge visuals for major music labels, collaborations with international artists. The real victory came when she was invited to speak at All About Music, not as a hopeful entrepreneur, but as an industry pioneer.
At 28, Shreya has already lived several lifetimes. Beauty queen, failed entrepreneur, creative director, AI pioneer. “People ask me about my five-year plan,” she says with a knowing grin. “Honestly? I’ve learned that the best chapters are the ones you never see coming.” That dusty crown? It turns out it was never the destination, just the first step in a journey that led her exactly where she needed to be. The phoenix doesn’t rise despite the ashes; it rises because of them. And Shreya Mehrotra is just getting started.
Pull Quote: “Failure didn’t end my story. It rewrote it. And that’s where the real journey began.”
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