HARISH SHARMA : From Publicity to Pictures

Specttrum Profiles: Harish Sharma, who grew up in Bareilly and later spent an important phase of his life in Pithoragarh, now divides his professional life between Delhi and Mumbai. For nearly three decades, he helped films, celebrities, brands and events find their audiences. Somewhere along that journey, the public relations professional who had spent years taking other people's stories to the media began telling stories of his own.

Today, Harish ji is a writer, filmmaker and documentary director. His creative table is crowded with films, books, documentaries and conversations with people whose lives interest him. At an age when many professionals begin reducing their ambitions, he expanded his.

His years at Guru Gobind Singh Sports College in Lucknow from 1978 to 1980 introduced him to competitive cricket and the discipline of sport. Another formative phase came in Pithoragarh. The Himalayan landscape, particularly places such as Adi Kailash and Om Parvat, stayed somewhere in his imagination. Decades later, those early impressions would return through his documentary work. But first came public relations.

Three Decades of PR

Harish ji spent around three decades in PR, corporate communication, entertainment, sports, political communication and events. Twelve important years were spent in Delhi before he moved to Mumbai in early 2008. Entertainment became one of his strongest professional territories. Over the years, he handled publicity assignments connected with more than 300 films, worked on hundreds of events and interacted professionally with around 200 celebrities. These numbers tell only part of the story.

Entertainment PR is an unusual classroom. It teaches how public attention works, how personalities communicate, how stories travel and how quickly audience behaviour changes. Harish ji lived inside that ecosystem for years. His ability to build media relationships, understand entertainment and manage communication under pressure established him as a dependable professional in the industry. Yet another creative stream had already started flowing alongside PR.

Being the Film Director

Filmmaking entered Harish ji's professional life much before he formally began moving away from full-time PR. His short film “Aakhiri Munadi” (The Last Announcement) was produced as early as 1999–2000. It was an early indication that the man promoting other people's creative work also had stories of his own waiting to be told.

The year 2012 brought two important milestones. His first feature film, “Two Nights in Soul Valley”, was released that year. His documentary “A Soldier Becomes a Monk” also came out in 2012. Then, on 20 November 2016, Harish ji made a conscious decision to change the centre of gravity of his professional life. After years of building a substantial career in PR, he increasingly turned towards writing, filmmaking and direction.

It was less a sudden career switch and more the expansion of a creative instinct that had been visible for years. By late 2023, he had shifted his base towards Delhi again to devote greater attention to documentary filmmaking. The move produced an unusually diverse creative pipeline. Harish ji has worked on stories around Adi Kailash, sports achievers, Ladakh, spirituality, social service, football talent emerging from economically disadvantaged families and people whose contributions can easily remain outside mainstream attention.

Among his recent works are “Adi Kailash” and “Brazil in Banaras: The Bhairab Dutt Story”. His documentary canvas also includes stories around the legacy of Guru Gobind Singh Sports College, a visually impaired Indian mountaineer, remarkable individuals from Ladakh and several other subjects involving people, places and human endeavour.

Three Works at One Festival

October 2026 brought an interesting milestone. Three works directed by Harish ji were selected for the 11th Dehradun International Film Festival: the documentary “Adi Kailash”, the documentary “Brazil in Banaras: The Bhairab Dutt Story”, and the music video “Logon Mein Prem Hoga”. The music video brings together the voices of Kavita Krishnamurti and Lucky Ali, lyrics by Sameer Anjaan and music by Dr L. Subramaniam.

Three different works. One international film festival. One director. It is a satisfying moment for someone who spent decades on the other side of the entertainment business, creating visibility for films and personalities. The PR professional is now creating the work being presented to audiences.

The Author Harish Sharma

Harish ji's storytelling also travels through books. “I Am Not Guilty – Kasab” and its Hindi version “Mujhe Afsos Nahi – Kasab” explored a difficult and controversial subject through his own narrative approach. “No Ball Two Crore”, available in digital format on Amazon Kindle, entered the world of cricket and its darker controversies. Another book in progress is particularly close to his professional journey: “30 Years of Entertainment PR”. It promises an insider's view of the glamour, relationships, pressures and changing practices of an industry Harish ji observed from close quarters for decades.

His creative interests have also produced “Legends with Harish Sharma”, a conversational platform featuring personalities and lesser-known achievers from different fields. Guests have included lyricist Sameer Anjaan, flautist Pandit Ronu Majumdar and several personalities from sports and other walks of life. The choice of subjects says something about the interviewer himself. Harish ji remains interested in people whose stories carry substance beyond immediate visibility.

The Himalayas Return

One connection brought our professional worlds together again in a very different setting. I introduced Harish ji to Ven. Bhikkhu Sanghasena, founder of the Mahabodhi International Meditation Centre in Ladakh. Harish subsequently explored the humanitarian and spiritual work surrounding Mahabodhi through his documentary lens.

His second documentary on Ven. Sanghasena was “A Life of Compassion: Bhikkhu Sanghasena”, exploring a life devoted to humanitarian service. It added another dimension to Harish ji's continuing interest in Ladakh, spirituality and human stories. For him, the Himalayas had returned. This time, there was a camera in his hand.

My Association with Harish Ji

Harish ji and I go back to the active years of SpecttrumPR. He was among the important associates who regularly brought film-industry related publicity assignments to us. Mumbai and Chandigarh were geographically apart, but entertainment PR kept our professional connection active.

There was another geographical connection too. Harish comes from Bareilly; my roots are in neighbouring Budaun. That shared belt of Uttar Pradesh added another familiar layer to a relationship built largely through media and entertainment.

One little incident from those years still makes me smile. After a media activity, I once found a paper slip that Harish ji had left behind. It contained notes from a brief exchange involving a Bollywood personality. Somewhere on that slip, while referring to me, Harish had written: “Narvijay is the Media Don in Chandigarh.”

I discovered his unofficial description of me accidentally. The slip became a small souvenir of the SpecttrumPR years. Much later, another tiny incident travelled into one of my books. During a cold stay in Manali, Harish ji shared a biscuit with me. It was an ordinary gesture in a chilled hotel room. Yet the moment stayed with me. Eventually, that little experience helped inspire “Carry Your Biscuits”, a book built around the larger idea of preparedness and carrying small personal resources that can unexpectedly become useful.

That is what long professional friendships often accumulate: assignments, journeys, conversations, forgotten slips of paper, shared biscuits and stories that reveal their meaning years later. Harish ji and I have both travelled through different phases since those old PR days. Today, we again live within the wider Delhi NCR ecosystem. SpecttrumPR has returned in a new form. Harish has travelled from publicity deeper into filmmaking, writing and documentaries.

Perhaps there is a certain symmetry in that. For three decades, Harish Sharma helped other people enter the spotlight. Today, behind the camera and through his writing, he is deciding where the spotlight should fall. Increasingly, he is pointing it towards people, places and stories worth preserving.

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