I'VE ALWAYS BEEN A FAN OF ADULT EDUCATION, AVERS TANUSRI DASGUPTA

Jyothi Venkatesh

It takes a lot of guts and willpower to leave a successful career and go back to school. But as they say, where there is a will, there is a way. And so Tanusri Dasgupta followed her will and left for a one-year course at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She calls herself a fan of adult education and says it was a beautiful feeling to go back and study. "I have always been a fan of adult education.

I recommend it to everybody. I feel that if anybody has the liberty or the freedom or the luxury of taking two months or three months of break, whatever works for you, to go back to studies, they must. Because just going to school at 40, with people who are twenty years younger to you, just rewinds your life by twenty years. It's such a rejuvenating, liberating and beautiful feeling that you actually can go back and learn at this point in your life," she said. Calling it the best decision of her life, she said, "It changed my life and that's why I have never regretted it. Because you are constantly updating and what people are learning today is completely different from what we had learnt twenty years ago. It's never too late to study, and I think everybody should invest in it again."

And what made her take that step? Well, she just wanted to take a break and start afresh once it ended, so she did a bit of research and ended up going to UCLA leaving her flourishing career behind.  "I had worked for straight up 16 years and had been an AP on the set, a creative director, a creative producer, and I just needed a break very badly. But I did not want any commitments to come back to. So, I thought only if I quit my job and pack my bags and start with a clean slate, I would be able to push myself to the most. So I did some research and this course came out in UCLA," Tanusri said.  "They have a program called UCLA extension for advanced studies, and it worked out fine.

The only thing is that it was a one-year course, but at that time my parents, my friends, and my bosses were super supportive, so it all worked out fine," she added. Tanusri was earlier heading the TV department of Balaji Telefilms as their Creative Director. Asked about the shows she has been part of creatively, she said, "If I have to point out the ones that I have specifically been a part of creating, then they are - 'Jodha Akbar', 'Kasamh Se', 'Bade Achhe Lagte Hain', 'Yeh Hai Mohabbatein', 'Kya Huaa Tera Vaada', 'Bandini', Kitani Mohhabbat Hai'."  After returning from the U.S. in July 2018, she was heading Essel Vision for a year and produced the romantic-horror series "Laal Ishq", which aired on &TV. In August 2019, Tanusri joined Balaji Telefilms back as their Vice President (Digital and TV). Talking about the shows she is working on now, she said, "I am heading 'Kehne Ko Humsafar Hain', 'Dil Hi Toh Hai', 'Ragini MMS', 'It Happened In Calcutta', 'Dev DD', 'Virgin Bhaskar' and many other under production shows that will launch early next year."