How Antara Pandit Makes Every Voice Count Through Her Storytelling Platform

Antara Pandit, the Founder of The Voices of Chennai (VOC), won SheThePeople's Digital Women Award 2024 in the Content Creation category for her drive to bring forth stories that matter and voices unheard. The Voices of Chennai is an online social media platform that highlights the raw and heartfelt stories of individuals from various walks of life and age groups, with a focus on amplifying personal journeys, challenges, successes, defining moments, life lessons, and so much more.

The platform seeks to inspire, spark conversations, break stereotypes, open up the deepest and most vulnerable parts of us, and encourage others to share their own stories as well. It envisions creating a platform that not only inspires but becomes a hub for authentic human stories, fostering a community of storytellers and listeners who connect on a deeply personal level.

VOC highlights that there is more to a person than meets the eye—do you want to take the time to get to know who they are?

Here are some excerpts from the interview

What roles and responsibilities do you play at The Voices of Chennai?

I am a Writer and the founder of The Voices of Chennai - a platform that amplifies the voices and stories of people from all walks of life and across all professional fields. The vision is to create a platform that not only inspires but becomes a hub for authentic human stories, fostering a community of storytellers and listeners who connect on a deeply personal level.

I am also the compiler of the 'Life during COVID-19' anthology series - an anthology of 100+ TRUE and powerful stories from people from all walks of life and across generations, about their experiences during the pandemic.”

How did you use digital platforms and tools to build your business?

Technology and digital innovation have been helpful in the growth and expansion of The Voices of Chennai, allowing us to connect, engage, and build a strong community of storytellers and listeners. Social media platforms such as Instagram have allowed us to establish an online presence that reaches a diverse and expansive audience - encouraging more people to come forward and share their stories.

Through carefully curated posts and stories, we share personal experiences that resonate with our target demographic. For example, many people have contacted us after seeing a story on the Instagram platform, asking to share their story too - this is a tangible result of the purpose of The Voices of Chennai: to let others know that they aren't alone in their journey.

How do you envision your future with The Voices Of Chennai?

Our vision is to become a leading platform for storytelling across multiple formats—social media, podcasts, and live events—empowering a global audience to share their stories. We aim to expand from an online-only presence into a multimedia content creator and event host, establishing a physical office in Chennai. By building a team for content creation, marketing, and business development, we will diversify into podcasts and live events, generating revenue through sponsorships, partnerships, and monetized content while attracting investors for scaling. Our primary audience includes Millennials and Gen Z, with a focus on Chennai-based and diaspora audiences, alongside B2B collaborations with like-minded brands.

What does your business model look like?

Our business model is generating revenue through brand sponsorships, event ticket sales, content monetization on YouTube, Instagram, and podcasts, branded merchandise, and a premium subscription model offering exclusive content. My primary costs include team salaries for writers, marketers, and editors, operational expenses like office space, utilities, and technology, marketing efforts through social media ads, SEO, and influencer collaborations, and event costs for venues, logistics, and guest speakers.

For growth, I focus on creating engaging social media content, collaborating with influencers, and launching hashtag campaigns like #ChennaiVoices. I plan to expand through podcasts, a storytelling-focused website, live events, and PR to amplify visibility.

Can you share some of your milestones with The Voices of Chennai?

I have been featured as one of Femina’s top 5 bloggers in South India and am the recipient of the Lifestyle Journalist Award in the Best Parenting Blog category in 2019, and She the People Digital Women Award in the Content category.

I was nominated for the Orange Flower Award by Women’s Web and the Kidsstoppress Award in the Best Contributor category. With that, I also received ‘Author of the Month’ in November 2018 by Women's Web and also got featured in the ‘India’s 100 under 40’ list released by Fox Story India.

What are the key challenges you faced in this journey?

The biggest challenge I have faced to date is in the frequency of posting stories. The process involved finding the guest, meeting them to chat and understand who they are at their very core (not something that can be done over one phone call), sending them prompts, transcribing their voice notes, pulling out their story myself, and creating the story, then finalizing everything and finally posting it. I am in the process of onboarding writers. However, to date, it has just been me. Each meeting and conversation is extremely fulfilling and requires complete focus. But the feedback and impact make all the challenges worthwhile.