In the land of Bach and Beethoven, Hindi films—and stars—are creating an alternative subculture. All thanks to one man
Naseem Bergau-Khan’s earliest recollection of watching a Hindi film goes back to his days in Germany’s Oberhausen, his childhood home. He was about six, and he saw Ganga Jamuna, starring Dilip Kumar and Vyjayanthimala, on television. All he remembers from that experience are his own tears. “I [had] cried a lot,” says the 35-year-old Bergau-Khan, founder-CEO of Ishq Media Group, (now known as the NBK 7 Media Group), in a video chat from his Düsseldorf office. “The film was heart-touching and, well, extremely long. At some point, my patience ran out,” he says. That remained his last Bollywood experience for a long time.
Bergau-Khan had a fairly desi upbringing. His mother, Qudsia Khan, hailed from Ahmedabad and his late German father, Heinz Bergau, had a “huge love for India”. Bergau was a businessman but is remembered more for his travel escapades—which he wrote about in newspaper columns—that took him to India. Mother Khan, now a retired school teacher, indulged in Indian films
and music.
Inevitably, his Bollywood-shyness didn’t last long.
In the early- and mid-2000s, when Hindi films, riding on the success of Shah Rukh Khan (SRK), became a rage with the German youth, Bergau-Khan converted. He not only fell in love with Bollywood but, in its world of glamour and gossip, he also found his true calling.
In 2006, he launched Ishq. Positioned as a “Bollywood lifestyle magazine”, the monthly sells in Germany and German-speaking parts of Europe, mainly in Austria and Switzerland. It offers readers updates on new film releases, interviews of celebrities, tidbits on Indian fashion trends, food and travel. “Ishq has become a highly valuable brand in these years,” says Bergau-Khan. “Consumers associate Ishq with an exclusive image of India.”
In about two years, he got into public relations and managing Bollywood events. In his latest venture, he has launched a Hindi-language course for German speakers.
“Our profile has now changed, so we wanted to change the name too,” he says. “NBK 7 Media Group is our new trademark.” An acronym of Naseem Bergau-Khan, the name was officially adopted in August.
However, just like a Bollywood film, Ishq was not without its pitfalls. “As young and inexperienced people are wont to, I made many mistakes,” recounts Bergau-Khan. “There was nobody to learn from, no benchmark to compare with. It was a trial-and-error process. Once, I collaborated with a German company for a very big India show. The company went bankrupt and I lost the entire money that I had invested, putting Ishq in a dangerous situation.”
(This story appears in the Nov-Dec 2014 issue of ForbesLife India. To visit our Archives, click here.)