Call Centres Spark Creativity
Inspires books & Bollywood
BPO

Today, Outsourcing is India's greatest success story. This story is woven around call centres, beehives of high-energy activity, where a number of men and women, most of them young, smart and well-paid work. They mix freely, pub-hop, wine, fine-dine and have a lot of fun. Naturally, these centres are a breeding ground for love, lust and envy. There have been instances of violence, financial frauds, rape and even murder. No wonder, the Bollywood, starved of good stories, has found a fertile ground for material in these call centres. Similarly, novelists, and short story writers have been drawing inspiration from these call centres.

Recently, the book publishing house HarperCollins India has announced the forthcoming release of a "romantic comedy about outsourced love" called "Once Upon a Timezone......" by Neelesh Misra, a journalist and Bollywood songwriter.
The novel will be available in bookstores in October, after its first formal release at the Frankfurt Book Fair-where India is the guest of honour this year.
“Once Upon a Timezone..." is a story about a middle-class youth, who dreams of his first love America, but settles for the second best--a job at a call centre--after he fails to get a job in the US. He assumes an American identity and soon tumbles into a faraway romance that will transform his life.
Lucknow-born Misra, 33, who had worked for major Indian and foreign news agencies, had previously written two non-fiction books--The Hijacking of IC 814 and End of the Line: The Story of The Killing of The Royals in Nepal.
Misra is also a songwriter for Bollywood and has written songs for films including Jism, Rog, Holiday, Gangster and Woh Lamhe.
Then there is a documentary titled, Bombay Calling, made by Samir Mallal and Ben Addelman. This award-winning documentary, featuring Sambuddha aka Sam, was shown on National Geographic Channel on August 15. He seems quite comfortable with his pseudonym, given to him at the Epicenter call centre in Mumbai where he is an office manager. He motivates, threatens and shouts at his colleagues to generate more sales, but always in a carefully trained American accent. “I have never visited the United States but I know the difference between a Texan accent and a Californian one," says Sam. “Of course, money is most important to me," he adds.



Sam could be speaking on behalf of the thousands of Indian call centre employees who work through the nights in their fancy accents, listening to clients barking orders and abusing them, but earning enough to sustain a fancy lifestyle at a young age.
In another scene from Bombay Calling, a father boasts of his young girl's earnings - predictably, she becomes a role model of sorts in Nashik as she helps her parents construct their home.
In the wee hours of the night, the film shows the call centre's employees at work in office. The "work rocks" attitude changes quickly to a disdainful "work sucks", even as they sip cocktails in a nearby pub after a gruelling eight hours of non-stop telemarketing.
Mallan wanted to make a film on the economic and cultural transformation happening in India and was amused to learn that "sometimes call centre employees were even memorising baseball scores in order to banter with their clients".
Mallan and Addelman are not the only ones to explore the creative dimensions of the BPO boom in India. Chetan Bhagat plotted the antics of the six main characters for his second book One Night @ the Call Center around this setting.
So has Richmond-based documentary filmmaker Sonali Gulati for the witty and personal Nancy By Day, Nalini By Night, the title itself saying a lot about the psyche of young middleclass Indians ready to be Westernised in order to chase their dreams and money.
Mumbai-based filmmaker Ashim Ahluwalia in his part-documentary, part-fiction film John and Jane focuses on the personal stories of his call centre protagonists.
PSBT has sponsored Bharath Murthy and Sreejith Karanavar for their film Sixth Sheikh's Sixth Sheep's Sick, a film that, according to the directors, "looks at the lifestyle of people working in call centres in Kolkata and their mechanisms for coping with this virtual environment".
Even the small screen hasn't lagged behind, and launched India Calling on Star One, a serial that revolves around a Chandigarh-based protagonist, Chandni, who comes to Mumbai in search of her sister and ends up working in a call centre.
What is prompting directors, writers and documentary filmmakers to explore the world of call centres? Mallan feels that the call centre lifestyle is intriguing. "Young, middle-class kids," he feels, "are suddenly flush with disposable income and spending like never before."
He adds, "Men and women are interacting every day. I wanted to explore the dimensions of what impact this life was having on them. How were they balancing traditions with the demands of their job?"
While Mallan shot the film for over a year, he admits to having researched by hanging out with a lot of call centre employees in addition to visiting a lot of call centres.
Interestingly, Bhagat sneaked into a call centre- courtesy his cousins who worked there - and spied on some employees in Delhi. He says he had a challenging task ahead, especially after his first book Five Point Someone was a stupendous success in India.
Since call centres were new and happening, he decided to base his story on them. "BPOs," he says, "are a part of Indian culture and that's the reason I wanted to showcase a story on it." Bhagat is now working on the script of One Night @ the Call Center for a movie that will be directed by Atul Agnihotri and will be released by mid-2007.
While Bhagat may be right in referring to call centres as part of the Indian ethos, a news channel recently showcased a special episode on the darker side of call centres. An ex-call centre employee on Life's Like That remarked, "I had to control my pee because I couldn't leave the cubicle without my boss's permission." Another girl revealed how her boss almost molested her after he called her into his cabin.
Fortunately, a majority of the films and documentaries look at presenting a complete picture rather than simply scratching the surface. Wendy, a character in Bombay Calling, narrates that "loss of appetite, sleep disorders and the stress of non-performance kills".
She adds, "No sales for three days can get us sacked and this is the unfortunate baggage that comes along with the mega bucks, lots of independence and late night parties."
Mallan agrees, "It is a tiring and thankless job and capturing this side of things was important for us as filmmakers. Surprisingly, India Calling avoided the darker side of call centres. In fact, the serial has changed track completely and is now just another family saga. Shailja Kejriwal, creative head, Star India says, "We weave dreams through serials and wanted to use the call centre only as a backdrop."
Most filmmakers are showing the small-town aspirations and delusions of Indian call centre employees. "My book was very popular in small towns across India," says Bhagat.
Bombay Calling has also won a clutch of awards including the grand jury prize at the Indian film festival at LA, and the most innovative documentary award at the Doxa festival in Vancouver. "Youngsters here (in India) are chasing the new Indian dream and doing whatever it takes to succeed in the global economy," says Mallan.

24/7 Customer named best
global call centre

24/7 Customer, a global provider of business process outsourcing services, has been named the best performing global call centre in an international book titled The 50 Best Managed Global 0utsourcing Vendors, a collaboration between Sourcing Magazine and The Black Book of Outsourcing.
The annual survey, which analyzed over 870 international outsourcing vendors in 63 countries, was considered by users, clients and employees to find 'Top 50 best managed vendors' for 2006.
The companies were ranked based on their consistent strength in the areas of human capital performance, CEO commitment, corporate direction and leadership impact. Other factors included client and employee satisfaction.
24/7 Customer has been evaluated on 44 indicators on outsourcing industry superiority, of which 26 indicators are specific to leadership, and 18 indicators addressing operational results.
Scott Wilson and Doug Brown, co-authors of The Black Book of Outsourcing, state in the book: "Continual improvements earned 24/7 Customer, the distinction of being the best performing global call center; lowering attrition and actively mentoring workers to keep clients happy."
"24/7 Customer is honoured to receive this prestigious ranking, as we rapidly expand our presence across the globe and strive to create better value for our clients," said P V Kannan, Co-Founder and CEO, 24/7 Customer. "We see this accolade as a testimony to our ability to execute consistently and surpass customer expectations, meet and exceed our employees' needs."
The Black Book of Outsourcing has been developed to provide objective and thorough analysis and advice to outsourcing buyers around the world, using measurable criteria and independent research. The book was compiled through 16,095 users and outsourcing employee responses to an electronic survey the authors issued at the start of the year 2006.
Of the respondents, 46 percent were from North America, 22 percent were from Europe and a quarter were from Asia-Pacific region.