Where you follow the leader
Shreya Gulyani, 22, has always loved tennis, but lost touch with it after school. As a treat to herself, the Delhiite signed up for an online masterclass with Sania Mirza (top) on Unlu in May. Over a month, she went through the 18 crisp lessons (amounting to a total of 89 minutes) by the former World No. 1 doubles player.
They included advice on how to enhance hand-eye coordination, tips on outthinking one’s opponent, and some personal insights too. “She said you cannot expect to win every match, but you have to keep working on improving your game,” says Gulyani, who is studying to be a chartered financial analyst. The masterclass gave Gulyani the motivation she’d been lacking, and she now plans to get back on the courts as soon as things open up.
“That is the goal,” says Unlu co-founder Vipul Agrawal, 28. “We pick mentors who had to make their own journey to the top of their field. That means they can pass on the right type of knowledge.”
Agrawal co-founded Unlu in January 2021, alongside Himanshu Periwal, and Anurag Dalia, 27. The Delhi-based startup currently hosts seven celebrity masterclasses, including one on writing by Ruskin Bond and another on acting by Manoj Bajpayee (right), both among their bestsellers.
“We spend about a week with each celebrity, in their home or a studio, outlining and fine-tuning the selection of stories they will tell and lessons they will impart. Then we call in the film crew to shoot,” Agrawal says.
Bond speaks to listeners from a park bench he frequents when he’s feeling contemplative; Mirza offers her lessons from the court; Pilates instructor Radhika Karle gets down on the mat at a gym.
“You also get stories from the field,” says Agrawal . “Manoj Bajpayee speaks about his role in Gangs of Wasseypur, where with every scene he gets older, and what goes into conveying that.”
The Unlu masterclasses range in duration from 90 minutes to three-anda-half hours. Sessions are broken down into short segments of a few minutes each, and users can access them at their own pace and in any order. Each masterclass also comes with a 100-page virtual workbook with exercises designed in conjunction with the mentor. Singer Monali Thakur’s workbook notes include warm-up exercises, tips on protecting the voice and insights on breathing.
A key limitation to this format is that there is no interactive element. Mohammed Irfan, 32, a software engineer and aspiring stand-up comic, signed up for the Johnny Lever masterclass and says he was largely happy with his investment, but he would have liked to ask for the comic master’s advice on writing. There wasn’t much, he says, on how the comic master comes up with a sketch or how to take real-life incidents and turns them into bits.
(Unlu’s prices range from Rs 1,500 for one masterclass to Rs 15,000 for an all-access lifetime pass)