What if we stopped measuring India by its problems and measured it instead by the solutions its people have been quietly building? Solutions like a comic book on menstruation that educated over 1.4 million girls. Or 10,000 rural women entrepreneurs transforming local economies by delivering essential products to the door. Or forests grown in backyards that could last a 100 years.
Back in 2010, (and even now) these weren’t the stories you often found in mainstream headlines. But they were shaping the future in ways that couldn’t be ignored.
The Lakshmi Rebecca Show, originally launched as Chai With Lakshmi, set out to make these stories visible. Long before purpose-driven content became a trend, the show created space for social entrepreneurs and grassroots innovators to share what they were building and why it mattered.
Each episode focused on two goals: giving social entrepreneurs and changemakers a space to share their work in their own words, and helping audiences understand the ideas clearly enough to inspire participation and action.
When Shanti Raghavan spoke about Enable India, an organization that equipped people with disabilities to find meaningful employment, she explained how confidence and systems matter as much as skills. Instead of making disability an obstacle, this enterprise defined a design problem that could be solved.
Industree, which helps artisan collectives connect with global brands and build sustainable livelihoods, offered a model that others could learn from. Their “6C ecosystem” guided rural artisan collectives through every stage of growth, from professional management and skills training to better design, access to markets, and digital tools. By structuring creative manufacturing for the new age, they showed how traditional livelihoods could scale without losing their roots.
Some episodes explored innovative and sustainable solutions to large scale problems, while others examined models, technologies, or products shaping the future in less visible ways. But all shared the same intent: help good ideas look great, and get discovered.
Creating the Lakshmi Rebecca Show was weeks of creative effort poured into each episode. Broadly, the process looked as follows:
- Pre-interviews and research to identify and develop each story
- Story structuring and production planning
- In-studio interview production
- Production across locations for up to two days to capture authentic perspectives and testimonials, and supporting b-roll footage
- Scripting, episode structuring and custom infographics design
- Post-production: editing, motion graphics, voiceovers, colour correction and music
- Multiple reviews and organic restructuring to deliver an impactful episode that was typically in under 20 minutes
- YouTube packaging - thumbnails and descriptions
- Publishing, distribution and social media sharing
The show often featured founders and teams who were still early in their journeys and lacked resources to document or publicize their work. In sharing these stories, it gave them something they could use for outreach, fundraising, and credibility building.
Over a period of time, the impact showed in numbers too -
organically
- Several stories picked up by mainstream press
- Viewers wrote-in about adopting sustainable habits or starting their own businesses.
The Lakshmi Rebecca Show built emotional equity. It earned attention by giving attention to ideas that mattered. The takeaway is clear: real stories age well, and purpose leaves a lasting footprint.