23 startups. 23 years. Every single one of them, a first.
Shailendra Singh did not build a career. He built industries. Across three decades as Joint Managing Director of Percept Ltd, he looked at what India was missing - and created it. India's first commercial animation film. India's first social cause cinema. India's first global talent management company. Asia's largest music festival. And when the business chapter closed, he started a new one — as a filmmaker, author and social entrepreneur. This is the map of everything he has built.
India's first and largest entertainment, media and communications conglomerate.
In 1984, Shailendra Singh joined his brother's three-year-old advertising firm. Over the next 28 years, he helped build it into India's most powerful entertainment company — launching 23 startups across advertising, talent management, sports marketing, live events, cinema and music.
At its peak, Percept planned media solutions for 320 brands valued at $2.4 billion, created and sold over 2,400 brand campaigns, and conceptualised and executed over 2,500 of India's largest live events. Shailendra was ranked the '12th Most Powerful Man in Bollywood' by Filmfare in 2009 and the 'StarMaker' by Stardust in 2015.
Asia's largest music festival. The world's 3rd largest dance music event. India's second-ever exported intellectual property — after the IPL.
In December 2007, Shailendra Singh set up a stage on Candolim Beach, Goa, and asked India a question it had never been asked before: do you want to dance? It did. Sunburn grew from that single experiment into the defining cultural movement of a generation — reaching over 18 million lives in a single season, bringing the world's greatest DJs to India, and establishing Shailendra Singh as Asia's largest music promoter and the only Indian ever ranked in the inthemix 50 Most Powerful People in EDM. It was always, and will forever be: of the fans, for the fans, by the fans.
World #3 (2014) · Asia's #1 · 200+ events per season
72 feature films. 16 National Awards. Consistently ranked India's Top 5 studio.
No one would give Shailendra Singh a shot as a film producer. So he made his own film — and ensured all 206 people in it were debuts. What followed was 25 years of backing the stories that other producers wouldn't touch.
India's first children's horror film. India's first full-length animation. India's first social cause cinema. India's first Pakistani film ever released. The directorial debuts of Vishal Bhardwaj, Shoojit Sircar, Nandita Das and Nagesh Kukunoor. Three National Awards for Kanchivaram, presented by President Pratibha Patil at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
In 2023, Hollywood legend Michael Douglas attended Shailendra's 25 Years in Cinema celebration at IFFI as guest of honour.
72 films · 16 National Awards · 480+ live Bollywood events
India's first global and local talent management company — for sport, music, movies and fashion.
Before anyone else in India was doing it, Shailendra Singh was building the careers of the country's biggest names — and brokering the deals that changed Indian sport forever.
He debuted Aishwarya Rai, Sushmita Sen, Hrithik Roshan, Karan Johar, Yuvraj Singh, Kapil Dev, Saurav Ganguly and Boris Becker. At one point, Percept managed 9 of India's 11 national cricket players. The Sahara sponsorship of the Indian national cricket team — the largest cricket sponsorship deal in the history of the sport — was brokered by Shailendra Singh.
$3.2 billion in sports deals · 9 of 11 national cricketers · The largest cricket sponsorship in history
India's first entertainment-for-good social enterprise. Celebrated by the United Nations.
When Shailendra Singh learned that 84 million Indian children did not attend school, he knew what he had to do with everything he had built. In 2015 he founded Guestlist4Good — bringing the world's biggest artists to India to perform for free, and using the proceeds to educate underprivileged children through the Magic Bus programme.
World #1 DJ Hardwell performed for free. 100,000 fans attended at no charge. The event became the largest attended Facebook Event in Facebook history. The United Nations celebrated Guestlist4Good in New York. 128,200 children have been supported through the Magic Bus education programme.
1.5 million on the world's biggest guestlist · 128,200 children educated · Celebrated by the United Nations
India's largest youth activation company.
Built to redefine how brands connect with India's 600 million young people, Boss Entertainment was Shailendra Singh's answer to a market that existing agencies simply didn't understand. Youth culture is not a demographic — it is a language. Boss Entertainment spoke it fluently.
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A shift from being in business, to being the business.
After 28 years of building other people's stories on screen, Shailendra Singh is now telling his own. As a filmmaker, writer and director — not a producer.
Ladoo, his Marathi black and white drama, is currently on the international festival circuit and has been submitted to the Cannes Film Festival. Three new books arrive in 2026, including his debut work of fiction published by Westland — India's most respected literary publisher. Eleven new films were announced at IFFI 2023.
The Inceptor is not done. Not even close.
"If a company or industry didn't exist — he created it."