Former Brut India Chief Business Officer Ishita Chauhan has launched Cultural (Mis)fits (CMF), a culture company focused on supporting artists, creators and communities shaping India’s counter-mainstream creative economy. Built over the past year, CMF aims to develop unconventional talent, create cultural intellectual property (IP) and connect emerging creative voices with brands, institutions and international markets. Its work will span talent development, content production, live experiences, storytelling and merchandise.
The company is built around the idea that creative communities do not need to conform to mainstream expectations to create cultural and commercial value. Instead, it aims to help artists and communities turn their distinct identities, ideas and audiences into sustainable opportunities. “I’ve always been a misfit, from classrooms to boardrooms. I was never particularly interested in fitting the mould. I was more interested in questioning why the mould existed in the first place,” Chauhan shared online. “After more than 20 years across media, brands, content and culture, I wanted to build something around my instinct that there are no misfits, only cultures the mainstream has not yet learnt to hold,” she added.
Who Is Ishita Chauhan?
Chauhan brings more than two decades of experience across media, retail, technology and the creator economy. Her career includes stints at Fabindia, Radio Mirchi and JioSaavn, followed by her most recent role as Chief Business Officer at Brut India.
Across these organisations, she has worked at the intersection of consumer behaviour, emerging audiences, brands and culture. Her experience informs CMF’s approach to building connections between creative communities and commercial opportunities.
Rather than treating culture only as a route to reach audiences, the company wants to work with the people and communities shaping it. Its focus is on helping unconventional creative voices build a lasting presence without having to adapt their work to fit established commercial expectations.
From Artists to Cultural IP
CMF launches with a multidisciplinary roster featuring artists and creators including Rushil Ranjan, Abi Sampa, Eshna Kutty, Gopal Datt Tewari, Aakash Odedra and Nirvair Rai.
Its portfolio also includes The Orchestral Qawwali Project, led by Ranjan and Sampa, Songs of Bulbul, Jupiter Pe Juice and Ruhbaru, its own music IP.
The company plans to operate across several areas, including digital media, an artists and culturists network, a content studio, live experiences, cultural IP and merchandise.
This model is intended to take creative ideas beyond individual projects. By developing talent, producing content, creating live experiences and building intellectual property, CMF aims to help artists and cultural communities develop opportunities that can extend across formats and markets.
The approach also creates a potential bridge between artists and brands looking to engage with audiences through more meaningful cultural connections.
Why Cultural Intimacy Matters
At the centre of CMF’s approach is the concept of cultural intimacy. The company describes this as understanding specific cultural worlds well enough to participate meaningfully in them, rather than simply buying access to their audiences.
As people gather around increasingly specific interests, identities and communities, cultural relevance can depend on more than broad visibility. Artists and creators may build strong connections within particular cultural spaces, even when their work sits outside mainstream attention.
CMF aims to help these communities translate that connection into sustainable opportunities while retaining what makes them distinct.
For brands, the company is positioning itself as a partner that can identify relevant cultural spaces and help them engage through meaningful participation. The emphasis is on contributing value to a community rather than relying only on mass reach or short-term visibility.
“Reach can be bought. Cultural relevance must be earned. Our job is to find the people creating cultural capital everyone else hasn’t learnt to value yet, and help turn it into sustainable economic opportunity,” Chauhan shared.
Building Opportunities Beyond the Mainstream
CMF enters the market with plans to expand its network of artists, creators, culturalists, brands, institutions and international partners across India and beyond.
Its launch reflects an approach to the creator economy that places cultural understanding alongside talent development and commercial strategy. Instead of focusing only on individual creators or campaigns, the company intends to build an ecosystem around creative communities, their work and the intellectual property they develop.
For artists and cultural voices, the challenge is often to find ways to sustain their work without losing their identity. For brands, it is to build credible relationships with communities whose interests and influence may not be captured by conventional measures of reach.
Cultural (Mis)fits aims to bring these needs together. Its long-term proposition rests on a simple premise: creative work outside the mainstream can hold cultural significance and commercial potential, provided the people behind it have the right support and opportunities.