Dino Morea, Actor & Film Producer talked to NewsX exclusively on its special segment, NewsX India A-List. Morea is an actor, model, and film producer. Dino also turned entrepreneur with investments in multiple business ventures.
After a successful stint as a model and actor, Dino shared with us what led him to turn entrepreneur. “To be honest, I’ve always been extremely ambitious ever since I can remember far back from school to college, I always wanted to do many things. Technology has always fascinated me. And ever since I started acting and, and meeting so many more people from different fields of life, I met a lot of entrepreneurs, young entrepreneurs at that point, and who were looking for investments and starting businesses”
“This got me really excited. So I started reading a lot of the new businesses ventures that were being started all over the world and some of the technology that was being created, new ideas that were launched was so fascinating. Being ambitious, just makes you want to know more and curiosity always spiking as to how does this happen? I read a lot of pitches because I’ve done a couple of movies by then and I had saved some money. So it would be apt to put some aside in some investments or some ideas which I thought would be really good in the future,” Dino further added, telling us how the entrepreneurial ideas kicked in.
Morea has been quite futuristic in his outlook and had in fact started talking about outdoor gyms and fitness well ahead of his time before it emerged as a trend. “The fitness idea came about very organically. I went for a jog where I live in Bandra and found out that there’s nothing else to do besides jogging. There’s no facility as such, anywhere in Bombay, or in India, for that matter. Hence, I thought to myself that what if we create a nice small facility where one can actually use to train on or to train at while you’re jogging, or while you’re walking,” said the actor.
“We all do a lot of body resistance workouts, therefore, I came up with the idea and designed something which I thought was pretty interesting where one can accomplish a lot of exercises in a matter of 400 square feet. Everyone loved the idea of let’s create a Get Fit Mumbai or Fit Maharashtra sort of initiative,” added Dino. To date, the actor’s initiative has successfully set up about 40-50 odd fitness stations in Mumbai and other parts of India such as Andamans, Gujarat and Jamshedpur.
Acting in multiple films, Dino turned producer with the film Jism 2 and has Helmet coming up for release soon. The actor shared with us what turned him as a film producer in the industry, “When I was acting towards 2010 around that time the offers coming my way were really nothing great to talk about. The film offers, the roles I was getting was really nothing to take home. And hence I thought to myself, listen, I want to be a part of the industry still. But I don’t want to accept these terrible roles in these movies, which is not going to do anything for my career.”
“I decided if I produce, I’ll be part of the film industry, which I really know well now and at the same time, maybe one day, I’ll produce my own film for myself, which I would love to act in. And that’s how it began. I collaborated with Pooja and Mahesh Bhat and we made that movie, I was hands-on as a producer and one movie teaches you everything you need to know about production as you’re doing everything, and getting involved in every sort of way. So that movie taught me a lot. It also made me realize how much I miss being in front of the camera,” elaborated Dino on his first production venture.
“I went to Delhi to a popular acting coach, NK Sharma in order to hone my skills and see what I’m missing. I came back and I started to push more to continue in the field. And fortunately now with OTT platforms and web series opening up the opportunities coming my way is fantastic and at the same time, I was always prepared. I’ve always been prepared and ready for an opportunity,” said Dino confessing his love for acting and his future projects lining up. The actor received positive reviews for Hostages 2 and Mentalhood earlier this year and is gearing up for a series of new releases.
“I feel I’ve really matured as an actor and now my production house is running pretty smooth. I want to keep creating content. We’ve got four other projects lined up to go into making. I’m enjoying this time and space. In those four years between 2012 and 2017, I did two businesses as well,” added Dino.
On his concluding note, Dino shared with us some of the lockdown lessons he understood over the last few months and unprecedented time, “I loved the lockdown and I was fortunate enough to enjoy it. I love the peace, tranquillity and clean air. There were many realizations during this lockdown, and most of all, we had caught up in this rat race, every day that we really forget to live with the moment. So, I’ve learned to sort of, I wouldn’t say slow down I’m still very ambitious and I still am still a huge go-getter, but I’m practising enjoying my life a little more. Every minute because I really don’t know what’s gonna happen tomorrow and that was a big learning.”
Further, Dino shared with us his USP and success mantra stressing on hard work. “Nothing beats hard work and perseverance. I realized that if you’re enjoying something that you do and you’re having fun doing it money automatically finds its way to you because you’re enjoying it so much that you do it so well. But one has to wake up every day looking forward to doing that particular thing and opportunities will come.”