How a women entrepreneur from Howrah is breaking the glass ceiling in the animation industry

Hansa Mondal_COO_Ssoftoons

Interview with Hansa Mondal, COO Ssoftoons, India’s leading animation company

Hansa Mondal:

Hansa was born on 29th July in Kolkatta, West Bengal, India. For starting a new venture, she left a well secure job. In fact, it was not a smooth journey.

As a complete newcomer in the industry, she learned sketching to know more about character proportion and BG perspective and studied animation in a leading Institute to know more about the pipeline of Animation.

She made herself a pioneer in her field, she adopted the knowledge of storyboards and direction from many international books.

She always kept her ambitions and her dreams high. Now she has become a leader and a successful women entrepreneur.

She believes that through hard work, dedication, sincerity, patience, and knowledge, one can achieve the impossible.

In 2001, she started her entrepreneurial journey. She is a co-founder of the company Ssoftoons. It is one of the India’s leading animation company.

Sourav Mondal is her business & life partner for this company. She started Ssoftoons with her husband Sourav Mondal in Howrah, West Bengal.

After a decade the company was very successful in the regional market. To get a large portion of the market share, she planned not to sell the IP but to retain it and this came to the existence of her YOUTUBE channels.

Which are running successfully with Billions of Views and Millions of Subscribers. Ssoftoons wanted to have its presence in the National market.

She moved to Mumbai with Sourav and two kids named Konishko and Darsh. As she wanted to enter the National Market.

There she pitched projects to many National Channels and succeeded to break the ice with one of them (Paapometer in Sony Yay).

After delivering some successful projects, she is currently working in association with Disney India.
Her current position is COO at Ssoftoons.

There she undertakes planning and execution to keep the flow running smoothly. She loves to read books related to management and leadership and Investment in the Global & National Market.

Tell us something about yourself

Hansa Mondal: Although Kolkata has been home always, my family on the paternal side comes from Jaipur, Rajasthan while my maternal lineage is from Kerala.

I was born and raised in Kolkata where I also did my schooling from Andrews High School and Completed graduation with science as mainstream from Calcutta University. 

I worked hard for becoming a cardiac surgeon but had to settle for a BSc degree and then started my career as a medical representative.

While I did attempt it with full sincerity, I knew it was not my calling. That is when I turned to explore the world of computers and coding and started learning the computer programming language where there I developed an interest in the art of animation. This was a turning point in my life! There has been no looking back since!

Please tell us a little about your entrepreneurial journey?

Hansa Mondal: With Animation, I not only found my professional calling but also found my life partner!

Sourav Mondal and I completed both found our passion in Computer Programming and animation and we both had a keen interest to start something of our own.

So immediately after completing the course, we started our studio in a small garage with two computers, and took our first steps into the world of Animation!

Comics were known to all, but creating something audio-visual out of it was amazing. After that, I started learning drawing to understand character proportion and BG perspective.

I also enrolled in an Animation Course designed by a Disney veteran to understand the Animation pipeline, and also read a lot to absorb the knowledge of storyboards and direction from many international books.

The knowledge gave me the confidence and strength to start a new experience in the field of Animation. As a result, we released our first animated series in 2001.

Ssoftoons never looked back after that, and we continue to bring smiles to millennials and generation Z with our unique content that is most relevant to the Indian audiences. 

What is your role at Ssoftoons?

Hansa Mondal: My current position is Co-Founder & COO of the Ssoftoons group of Companies. My main role is to oversee Designing and implementing business strategies, plans and procedures to maintain the company’s healthy growth.

What made you join this type of profession?

Hansa Mondal: Animation is a highly creative medium with plenty of room for fantasy and imagination.

There are no limitations to what story you want to tell and how you want to tell it! Also, myriad complex emotions such as love, friendship, jealousy, pride and more can be explored in animated films with gripping plotlines.

These thoughts helped me to join the animation profession, where I can use my passion and creativity to do something unique for society. It also seemed that this profession could provide job opportunities to many creative people in India. 

What have been some of your failures, and what have you learned from them?

Hansa Mondal: Failures are the pillars of success.  Through out my journey I have seen many,

From 2001 to 2003, Ssoftoons released many animation series for the regional market and achieved tremendous success but struggled to cover the cost.

2003 to 2010, again grabbed the market share by releasing VCDs, but Piracy ended the game.

After that, we reworked our strategy, recaptured the market with a more robust approach and never looked back.

Now we are acclaimed with billions of views and millions of subscribers. 

Failure does not mean an end. It’s just a restart.

What was the inspiration behind turning into an entrepreneur

  1. To do something unique and good for the society we live in.
  2. Job opportunities for many who dare to dream and could chase them with dedication and passion.

Your success mantra for young and aspiring entrepreneurs

Hansa Mondal: Always keep your ambitions and dreams high and strive to achieve them through hard work, dedication, and knowledge.

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