About
The Opinion is a writing and film studio in Bengaluru, run by two people. Sree Ganesh S S is trained in law and works as a writer and producer, with a background in policy and in documentary. Gurunandan S is a psychology graduate and the behavioural half of the studio. One of us builds the case the way a lawyer builds one. The other knows how the jury decides.
The studio's values are logic, critical thinking and reality, as working rules. Logic: an argument is joined properly or it is not made. Critical thinking: our own case gets the treatment we give an opponent's, before it goes out. Reality: we argue from what is the case, and a client can overrule our argument but not the facts it rests on.
The work is writing and film that changes what an audience believes, and then what it does. Two of us do it, with a production team in Bengaluru, and the names on our published pieces are ours.
What we do not do
Work a client has asked us for, or will, where the answer is no.
Work we will not take
We do not practise law and we do not act for anyone in a legal capacity. One of us is trained in law and is not enrolled with a bar council. Where a matter needs a practising advocate, we refer it out rather than handle it.
We do not write a position the client does not hold. We do not publish a claim that cannot be sourced. We do not take undisclosed paid promotion: where money has changed hands, the piece says so. We do not act for both sides of an investigation; the rule is on the crisis page.
Work that is not this business
Performance marketing and media buying. Growing follower counts or buying engagement. Search-optimised content at volume. General social media management, as distinct from writing for one named person. Brand identities and logos. Events.
Work we refer out
Anything that needs a practising advocate; intellectual property registrations, which need a separately registered agent; media buying; and clinical psychological support, which a psychology degree does not qualify anyone to provide. We take no fee for passing work on.
Occasions, websites and teaching
Occasion and web
Occasion films, event coverage and website builds, made under The Opinion's own name. Here you direct, and we answer for the craft and the delivery, priced on a rate card and unbranded unless you want our name on it. Events are filmed by the studio, and websites are built for brands and for people.
Institutions and training
The studio's method, taught to schools, companies and newsrooms under The Opinion's name. The same standards apply: every claim in a lesson carries a source, and nothing is taught that the studio would not publish.
Sessions and workshops
What the training covers, by who it is for.
Schools
- Artificial intelligence awareness sessionsWhat these systems can and cannot do, how they get things wrong, and how to tell when something was made by one.
- Online safety sessionsScams, impersonation, image misuse and pressure online, taught for the age group in the room.
- Digital literacy sessionsHow to judge a source, trace a claim back to where it started, and spot a manipulated picture or video.
- Teacher and parent sessionsWhat children meet online and how to talk to them about it, for the adults responsible for them.
- Safeguarding policy and disclosure protocolA clear policy for the school, and what a member of staff should do when a child discloses something.
Companies
- Machine literacy for teamsWhere automated tools help, where they mislead, and how to check what they produce before it goes anywhere.
- Leadership communications trainingBuilding a case, holding a position under questioning, and saying the difficult thing clearly.
- How executives get into trouble in publicStatements that went wrong, why they did, and what would have worked instead.
Newsrooms and creators
- Newsroom and creator trainingArgument, sourcing and honest packaging, taught to working teams to the standard the studio publishes at.
- Sourcing and verification workshopsFinding the original document, checking footage and images, and keeping a record a reader can follow.
Questions people ask
Does the studio practise law?
No. One of us is trained in law and is not enrolled with a bar council. Where a matter needs a practising advocate, we refer it out rather than handle it.
Where is the studio?
In HSR Layout, Bengaluru: about six hundred square feet, treated for sound, with a second set for interviews. We deliver in English, Hindi and Kannada.
Does a machine write the work?
No. We use AI to transcribe, to summarise what a client has saved, to collate research and to make a first rough cut. The claim, the position and the sentence are made by a person.
Who owns what you make?
The client owns the channel and everything published on it. A client's reading archive in Trace is theirs, exportable in full at any time, and kept if they stop working with us.
How does an engagement start?
For most leaders, with a positioning audit: a fixed fee, one to two weeks, and three sample pieces written in your own voice.
Write to us
Say who you are and what has to be argued.
We reply within two working days, and if the answer is no we say so in writing.
The head of this scroll is the gold-leaf endpaper and the edge of the brocade cover of Illustrated Legends of the Kitano Tenjin Shrine (Kitano Tenjin engi emaki), Japan, late thirteenth century, which tells the life of Sugawara no Michizane: a scholar and statesman slandered at court and sent into exile, restored to honour after his death and worshipped as Tenjin, the patron of learning and of writing.
The prints beside the passages come from his legend and his shrines. Katsushika Hokusai: a poem by Michizane, from One Hundred Poems Explained by the Nurse (about 1839); boys learning to write and paint (about 1785); the drum bridge at the Kameido Tenjin shrine (about 1830). Katsukawa Shun'ei: Bando Hikosaburo III as Michizane (about 1800). Katsukawa Shunshō: Nakamura Nakazo as Michizane the thunder god (about 1780). Utagawa Hiroshige: wisteria at the Kameido Tenjin shrine, from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (1856). Yashima Gakutei, Hokusai's pupil: a nobleman at his calligraphy (about 1830).
The Metropolitan Museum of Art: the scroll, Fletcher Fund, 1925 (25.224a–e); the prints, JP5, JP743, JP2947, JP2824, JP1532, JP2517 and JP1133. All in the public domain. The paper colour of each photograph has been lifted so that the pictures sit on this page. Nothing has been redrawn.
