User:Manju Ramanan

Manju Ramanan, born on 2nd January 1974 is an Indian journalist, writer and content creator. She is the current Editor in Chief of Filmfare Middle East (the Middle East edition of Filmfare), franchised and owned in the Middle East by the Danube Group under Starz Media Inc. She was the Group Editor for Filmfare ME, Femina ME and Salt n Peppa magazines from 2011-2017 under Saffron Media Works, Dubai - a company that closed in 2017.

Early Life Manju Ramanan was born in Trivandrum, Kerala in 1974 to a Tamil Iyer family and was raised in Baroda- Gujarat. Her late dad R. Ramanan worked with the Indian Petrochemical Corporation Limited in Baroda and her mother is a former HR and Admin professional. She completed her schooling from Gujarat Refinery English Medium School and went to the MS University of Baroda, where she completed her BA, MA and M Phil with English Literature specializing in Post-Colonial Canadian writing. After two years of teaching at MS University as a teaching assistant and guest lecturer and volunteering for an NGO - Bhasha Research and Publication Centre in Baroda, in November 2000, she joined the Times of India and managed Baroda Times

Career Manju Ramanan worked with the Times of India, Baroda Times edition for five years before joining Femina magazine heading the Ahmedabad operations. After two years with Femina, left India for Dubai and joined Sterling Publications, FZ LLC, a media company in Dubai as Deputy Editor for the UAE Digest and Editor for publications such as Ajman Today and RAK Today. She also brought out four coffee table books on the royal family of Ras al Khaimah and her book Golden Tribute on the life of HH Sheikh Saqr al Qasimi, ruler of Ras al Khaimah who was then the second longest reigning ruler in the world was well received. The three years in the UAE gave her a sound grounding of working in the Middle East and strengthened her base in its culture, art, policy and outlook. She joined Filmfare Middle East in 2011, under Saffron Media Works as Editor and introduced local supplements such as Salt n Peppa. She also became the Group Editor of the publishing house when Femina Middle East was introduced to the UAE in the year 2014. She managed and executed several events with the team that included FilmfareME5 when Filmfare ME celebrated 5 years in the UAE, the FeminaME4Cancer campaign, launched actor Prem Chopra's book, Prem Naam Hai Mera and covered the Dubai International Film Festival as well as the Abu Dhabi International Film Festivals extensively. During my tenure created and presented film related content on radio and television. Filmy Interval with Filmfare Middle on Suno1024 FM and A Tete a Tete with Saffron on Star Plus.

In 2017 after Starz Media closed, as a Media consultant, she ideated and executed The Dubai Women’s Run where she got her saree group to run 5kms of the run, in cotton handloom sarees. The same year she launched a Dubai based costume jewelry brand Biori and co-wrote a play Just Like That (JLT) with Asad Raza Khan. She also Emceed the book launch of Ganesha by Sujata Bajaj and hosted the Times Now Business Leaders event in March 2017.She also launched Asha Parekh's autobiography, the Hit Girl, written by Khalid Mohammed as well as Rakeysh Om Prakash Mehra's Rang De Basanti's screenplay at the Sharjah Book Fair that year.

In January 2018, under the sponsorship of the Danube Group and its Chairman and Founder, Mr Rizwan Sajan, she reinstated the Filmfare Middle East brand in the region. Its first edition that had Deepika Padukone on cover, was launched in great style at Bollywood Parks on March 29th 2018 with Deepika Padukone, Karan Johar, Jackie Shroff, Manish Malhotra, Fawad Khan, Mehwish Hayat, Jaaved Jaaferi, Dia Mirza, Sophie Choudhry, Pooja Hegde, Sunil Gawaskar, Bharti Singh, Bappi Lahiri, Usha Uthup, Armaan and Amal Mallik among others in attendance. The next month, the Arabic edition of the magazine was added as well. The first anniversary of Filmfare ME, was celebrated it in Oman at the Bar al Jissah resort and the star studded event was graced by Sonam Kapoor as the leading star with Jahavi Kapoor, Ishan Khatter, Jacqueline Fernandez, Jackie Shroff, Shatrughan Sinha, Asha Parekh, Bappi Lahiri, Usha Uthup, Haitham Mohammed Rafi, Nora Fatehi, Rajkummar Rao, Madhur Bhandarkar and Tabu.

On April 11th, she had planned Filmfare ME’s 2nd anniversary titled Achievers 2020 that had confirmed attendance of Ranveer Singh, Varun Dhavan and Ayushmann Khurrana among others but the event was postponed due to the Covid 19 situation. The magazines are digital for the time being but she has continued putting out digital content on the website through Instalive and Zoom interviews as well as creating local content from the UAE.

Books Written 1. Blueprint for Success (a coffee table book on the Ras Al Khaimah Free Trade Zone) – 2010 2. Progress: Sustained Development ( 2010) 3.The Golden Tribute: Commemorating 60 golden years of HH Sheikh Saqr, Ruler of Ras Al Khaimah- 2009 4.Progress: Inspiring Strategies: On HH Sheikh Saud, Crown Prince of Ras Al Khaimah - 2009 5.Tribute to a Visionary: On HH Sheikh Saud’s 6th accession anniversary – 2008

Books Launched 1.	Prem Naam Hai Mera: by Prem Chopra 2.	Ganesha ; By Sujata Bajaj 3.	The Hit Girl : By Asha Parekh 4.	Rang De Basanti: The Script by Rakeysh Om Prakash Mehra

Contributions in books, newspapers, magazines, TV and radio

1.Beyond Resistance: Critical essays on Canadian First Nations Writing – 2002(2 Volumes) 2. Arrey! Magazine (February 2007) 3. The Times of India – Ahmedabad, Chandigarh 4. Encounter with the Other (University of Hildesheim – Germany) 2010 (Book in 3 volumes) 5. India Diversity: Edited by Hilda David and Francis Jarman 6. Hosted the 13 episode television show Tete a Tete with Saffron (The Urban Guide) on Star Plus Middle East 7. Hosted Filmy Interval with Filmfare Middle East on Suno102.4 FM on star trivia from the film world. 8. Hosted Super Women on Channel D- Six episodes.

--- Manju Ramanan articles and YouTube interview links

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/Baroda-spawns-a-legion-namesake/articleshow/1984163260.cms https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toireporter/author-Manju-Ramanan-4946.cms https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/ahmedabad-times/New-kid-on-the-block/articleshow/1252456.cms https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/bollywood/news/Haunted-by-old-Bollywood-ghosts/articleshow/938200.cms https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chandigarh/First-official-gurdwara-in-Dubai/articleshow/6092737.cms https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/ahmedabad-times/Burnt-at-the-stakes/articleshow/1128252.cms https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/Parrot-trainer-fights-to-keep-110-yr-tradition-alive/articleshow/468648738.cms https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/bollywood/news/When-the-voice-beckons/articleshow/858500.cms https://roxygagdekar.blogspot.com/2006/?view=classic https://souboyy.com/2014/06/16/manju-ramanan-at-femina-middle-easts-launch-in-dubai/ http://www.dubaiprnetwork.com/m/pr.asp?pr=110401 https://www.emirates247.com/entertainment/exploring-the-darker-side-of-bollywood-with-the-legendary-prem-chopra-2014-05-07-1.548261 http://shellyjyoti.blogspot.com/2016/01/manju-ramanan-group-editor-interviews.html https://www.evepla.com/AE/Dubai/423330881129336/RivaniTextiles https://gulfnews.com/uae/danube-to-relaunch-filmfare-in-the-middle-east-soon-1.2162402 https://www.ts-parfum.ru/video/scKeERxeNEk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bNCQIeOm34 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYCWja-NkK_bht_OO2PhLlg/videos?disable_polymer=1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGI5OB4Qt9k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ESjSU4NRuQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1JFlHKNPVs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YIv7LMo1x8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_0dsoF4sL8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLLBIe3MjMc https://w2wevents.com/2014/10/29/a-fathers-daughter-in-conversation-with-manju-ramanan-group-editor-of-saffron-media-corp-by-zareen-khan/ https://www.meetup.com/Awesome-Walkers/events/249596524/ https://www.instagram.com/p/BDaAc_7SFIB/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDAbdBh84_k https://www.india.com/news/agencies/first-international-young-author-award-to-be-held-in-dubai-2102454/