As an award-winning author, Shalaka takes great pleasure in writing and uses it as a means to reach out to the outside world. She quotes, "People are inspired by stories, and stories are inspired by people."

Shalaka Kulkarni is an artist, writer, and global marketing communications and branding professional. She has a Masters in Marketing from the Welingkar Institute of Management and has also done an advanced course in Neuromarketing.

Originally from Bengaluru, Shalaka is a strong believer in giving back to society and has volunteered for various organizations. Her writing journey started at the age of 8, and today she is the successful author of the book ‘Orenda’, which is a collection of 52 short stories based on modern India. Besides, Shalaka is an electrical engineer too.

Shalaka began writing pieces in Marathi and was often pushed by her mother and grandmother to submit her writings to a newspaper. She eventually started writing in English and Hindi as well. While pursuing her electrical engineering, Shalaka worked with age-old newspapers and learnt some of the basics of journalism out of curiosity. Gradually, she started editing magazines and took up side projects in the content and communications space. Shalaka started enjoying the media and writing so much that she started losing interest in the technology and engineering sphere.

Shalaka got an opportunity to head the corporate affairs of an MUN-Model United Nations conducted in Nagpur, the most noteworthy of which was Aman ki Asha, in which she, along with other team members, brought Pakistani students to the conference. Pursuing her interest in the marketing space, she tried her hands on everything from marketing research to advertising and did projects with brands like McDonalds and HUL. She has also won group competitions in IIMA and BITS Pilani, and also emerged in the top three on LinkedIn’s Get a Job Season 2 with Godrej.

Her first job after earning her MBA was as a Category Manager in a Bengaluru startup, where she worked in finance, sales, marketing, and operations management.This is when Shalaka realized that it was only marketing that she would like to pursue. Soon she got into Brillio as a Lead-Global Communications, where she received eight awards for her commendable work. Shalaka is currently working as an Associate Manager at Microland.

Shalaka was fortunate and delighted to receive her first national award for driving impact in the social media sphere in the technology category, following which she was invited for her first TEDx talk. Alongside, she continued participating in poetry writing challenges, which is indeed her passion. In October 2020, Shalaka took up the Inktober challenge, where she wrote and painted for 31 straight days and organized a fundraiser with her 31 paintings. It was in partnership with Give India—Mission 10 Million Meals, that Shalaka was able to raise a significant amount for feeding the hungry.

Talking about COVID, Shalaka says that it was a depressing period since she lost a few of her dear ones and many of her acquaintances were hospitalized. She herself faced bad health and got infected with dengue, being hospitalized for ten days. However, on the personal front, Shalaka got ample time to write and get her book published. She also indulged in acrylic painting and nurtured plants, keeping herself calm and composed.

In Shalaka’s opinion, both education and experience play an important role. She says that education is the building block and the application of it comes with experience.

Shalaka’s only mantra for success is "Time is the only God" and "Work is worship." Resilience, consistency, and courage are the key qualities she abides by. Shalaka believes in doing more than dreaming, and her goal is to get ahead of herself, outstripping her yesterday and working with more effort than ever before.

If Shalaka could go back in a Time Machine, she would focus on the environment and sustainability and curb deforestation and stop climate change from happening.

Shalaka advises the youth not to be afraid of failure and to keep trying and experimenting with things. She suggests aspiring marketing professionals to have industry knowledge and be open to any kind of feedback. Shalaka adds that they should be ready to brainstorm in creative spaces and have a mentor to guide them.

In her leisure time, Shalaka likes to paint, travel, and explore new places.