Women Deserve To Do What They Want With Their Lives, Says Pramiti Madhavji Of Elle Decor

Pramiti Madhavji started her career with client servicing, but it was Elle Décor that she believes became her “calling”. Being with the magazine for over a decade, she believes that Elle became a platform for her to put her conceptualizing and ideating abilities to its best use. She is not just the editor-in chief but was the founding editor of Elle Decor India in 2000. And for her, one of the most fulfilling moments in her life was to see the first pages of the magazine come out of the printers.

“I was there with the founding team at the printers and just to see the pages come out was nothing short of getting a baby,” reminisced the Chief Editor.

Another one of her achievements was to bring together the India Design ID exhibition. The ongoing Interior design and home decor exhibition initiated by Ogaan Media –India Design ID 2017—brings together decor brands along with eminent speakers from India and abroad at one place. Being at its helm as a founding member, Pramiti recalled that it was actually meant to start in 2008 but the economic slowdown halted it and it finally took off five years back in 2013.

Pramiti is the face of Elle Decor. So how does it feel to her to be at the highest level of Elle? She is modest enough to say, “I don’t think of it as being a leader, I just think of it as being there to hopefully inspire and pass all the information down to people with whatever little that I have gained. One does not realize but it is a lot in terms of years and experiences that I have had, so I just want people to take from me what I have and take it forward.”

Pramiti Madhavji

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Elle is highly women-dominated as most of its executive-level positions are owned by women. Talking about the magazine being dominated by women, she said, “I am not quite sure why it is the way it is, but it has got a lot to do with the fact that home is largely a woman’s domain but it is changing now, so I think maybe that is why.”

"Often it happens that very talented girls come to our office and then they have to get married and then they resign, saying I am sorry but my in-laws don’t want me to work"- Pramiti Madhavji of Elle Décor

She feels that women bring in the softness into the whole decor and design industry with a hard heart as women work no less than a man would. “I am no one to differentiate between genders but I think it is the passion that drives the industry forward.”

When asked what advice she would give women who want to work in such creative fields as opposed to the conventional ones like engineering, doctor, teacher etc, she was quick enough to say, it is not the girls who need advice but their parents.

She added, “Because often it happens that very talented girls come to our office and then they have to get married and then they resign saying I am sorry but my in-laws don’t want me to work. The in-laws of these girls actually say to them that their husbands are making enough money, so why do they have to work? It really frustrates me and I really would like to talk to these in-laws.”

"You know the girl is talented enough to do a job, allow her to do it. That said women deserve to do what they want to do in their lives"

She shares her own experience that when she told her own parents about her advertising job, they were reluctant as she used to work till late hours. “But they were understanding enough to never say no.”

Pramiti wants to say to these restricting in-laws, “You know the girl is talented enough to do a job, allow her to do it. That said women deserve to do what they want to do in their lives.”