Storytelling as a Career: Kanisha Sarkar's BA in Film and Media at Leicester

Film and media is not a popular choice in Siliguri or North Bengal. Parents worry about stability. Students worry about what exactly they would do with the degree. Kanisha Sarkar didn't worry about either — she had wanted to tell stories since she was a child, and she made a career out of that wanting.

She grew up in Siliguri, moved to Dehradun for school at Echol Global International Girls School, and then to the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom for her undergraduate degree. We have known her and her family for four to five years. Her discipline and clarity of purpose, as she says, are a reflection of how she grew up. This is how she explains the journey.

Why storytelling, why abroad

"There's a line in the Bhagavad Gita that says do what you love and don't worry about the outcome." Kanisha says this is what guided her. From childhood, Bollywood movies were not just entertainment — they were evidence that storytelling was the one thing that connected people across every boundary.

She did not consider alternatives seriously. If she had to do maths to study, she couldn't. If she had to tell stories, she would. She chose film and media without regret and has never had one.

The advice she gives to students who are still deciding in class 10th, 11th, or 12th is the same: "Identify your passion and make a career from it. If you don't enjoy what you're doing, you cannot focus on it."

What the curriculum actually demanded

The first thing Kanisha says about film and media is a warning: "It might sound very glamorous from the outside. It is very different." She spent long days on shoots in the UK's notoriously cold, windy, wet weather. She borrowed cameras and microphones from teachers and friends because she didn't own her own equipment. She dealt with retakes, failed audio, and the grinding patience that long-format content requires.

Her most significant project was a documentary — one she shared with us before the podcast. Getting that documentary made required problem-solving that no textbook could have prepared her for: contingency planning for weather, managing a crew, holding the vision of a finished piece through months of uncertainty.

"It's not that one day you'll become successful or one night you'll make a movie. It needs consistency. It needs patience." She has seen plenty of students — even talented ones — underestimate how long the runway is in creative fields. It does not happen overnight.

The curriculum at Leicester blended theory and practice. What the degree gave her, beyond technical skills, was a voice. "Film and media changed my life because I got my own voice — in professionalism, in how I communicate with anyone. It gave me the confidence to be outgoing."

Eighteen countries on a Schengen visa

One of the most concrete advantages of studying in the UK is the Schengen visa. All the European countries it covers — France, Italy, Germany, Monaco, Rome, Greece, and a dozen more — are one short, cheap flight away.

Kanisha used this fully. Across her time at Leicester, she traveled eighteen countries. She planned trips the night before. She and her friends booked budget flights to Monaco on impulse. "Being a student, you don't just get an academic degree — you get a true global exposure."

She comes from a family that supported her financially, so this was possible. But she also worked as a student ambassador at the University of Leicester — a prestigious on-campus role she earned herself, talking to prospective students and representing the university at events. She earned her own money. And she didn't tell her parents.

"My parents didn't know I used to work there. When I finished uni and came back home, I told them. They had tears in their eyes — 'What was the need?' But for me the main thing was earning my own self-respect. To know what it feels like to earn your own money."

This is a point we make to every student from a comfortable background who says they don't need to work: "It is something bigger than just earning money." The confidence that comes from being capable of earning — from navigating a job process, managing a professional relationship, showing up reliably — does not come from receiving an allowance.

The offers she received, and the choice she made

Before leaving the UK, Kanisha received offers. The New York Film Academy offered her an internship. The BBC was a possibility. Her batchmates are working in UK media.

She came home anyway — back to Siliguri, back to the family business founded by her grandfather Mr. Kamal Sarkar and her father Mr. Kajal Sarkar. She is now one of the directors of Jalpaiguri Institute of Technology, a college the family has taken on in Jalpaiguri.

It was not a retreat. It was a choice, made from the same position of strength that let her travel eighteen countries on her own terms, work a job her parents didn't know about, and film a documentary in the British rain.

Her advice to students watching this

On patience: "This field requires a lot of consistency. Don't go into it because it looks glamorous. The short reels where someone dances and gets a million views — that's not film and media."

On social media: "Limit your time. Focus on your health. When your life is smooth you have a thousand problems. When your health is gone you have one. Choose the thousand problems."

On the application timeline: "Approach a counselor at least six months before you want to leave — ideally a year or more. Do not come to us after your board exams are over. That is too late."

If your child is drawn to creative fields — film, media, communication, storytelling in any of its forms — the conversation starts with understanding what they actually want to make and how they want to make it. Reach us to begin that conversation, or take a first step with our Course Finder.