Observation and Assessment of leadership style

and quality exhibited by

“Diya (Madhuri Dixit)” in movie “Aaja Nachle”.

Organizational Behavior

Group Assignment

Submitted to : - Dr. Chitra Khari

Submitted By :-

Aakash Ghosh – 191301

Aakash Chavda – 191302

Aayushi Mehta – 191303

Abhinaya Malasi – 191304

Abhishek Vyas – 191305

 Poster of “Aaja Nachle”

Source of Image : Yash Raj Films

Synopsis

Diya is a dancer and choreographer and has been living in US since past 11 years with her
daughter. One day she got the news of her dance Guru Makarand’s bad health. Guru was
just on the verge of his death. To meet his Guru, Diya comes back to her village “Shamli”
located in India. after 11 years. However, Her Guru died before Diya could meet him. Her
Guru gave Diya the task to save the monument named Ajanta, where they used to dance
and practice. Local authority have been planning to construct a mall by demolishing the
Ajanta. Diya also has a great attachment to this monument. To save the Ajanta, she comes
with a plan to explain the importance and make aware the villagers about the value of the
Ajanta. For that she organizes a show representing the dance and the play (drama story). In
the beginning of her journey, villagers were in her opposition and were not interested in the
her objective. However, Diya played an important role of an excellent leader in explaining
and making them ready to be a part of the show. After all, the show was successful and Diya
was able to convince the villagers and the local authority the importance of the Ajanta.

Our Views

After watching the movie, it is difficult to put the protagonist in a singular bracket of
leadership attributes. Just like any other successful leader, the protagonist (Diya) displays a
blend of certain leadership skills. She uses a mix of transformational, charismatic and
authoritative leadership styles to clearly identify her primary objective which is to reinstate
the position of Ajanta as the hub and heart of her childhood town Shamli. She further uses
her charisma and transformational qualities to influence the people of Shamli to develop
and better themselves into the best versions of themselves. On doing so each character in
this plot realises their true potential and what they stand for. The trust and unity within the
community thus increases and fosters an environment of positivity and mutually aligned
objectives.

Her different leadership skills are on display on a variety of occasions throughput the movie.
On returning from the hustle bustle of New York city, she is quickly able to adapt to the life
in the town of Shamli and penetrate the misconceptions the people shared about her and
what Ajanta really stands for. With further display of her charisma she is able to convince
the MP of the town that Ajanta's position and value in the town must be decided by the
people of the town. This was the whole essence of the deal she broke with the MP. Rather
than encouraging behaviour through strict instructions she communicates though
eloquence, charm and clarity thus creating an atmosphere of trust and positivity within the
community. Charismatic leaders are very inspirational and effective at getting an entire
group invested in a shared objective which is truly reflected by her in this movie. She is able
to unite people from all walks of life and align their interests and goals.
Diya, is also portrayed as a character who is forged with values, love and empathy. She
proves to be a transformational leader when she puts in her heart and soul to develop each
and every character within the community. She helps Anokhi realise her self worth and
esteem simultaneously helping Imran to break down his defensive walls and accept life. She
pushes Mr.Chojar to step out of his systematic approach to life and embrace and open up
to it . Transformational leaders inspire and empower other people to own their work and
chime in with their suggestions or observations about how things could be improved. Even
when adversity struck before their final performance was put up, she was able to sustain
the belief in people. The cons of transformational leadership style are also reflected in the
movie. In environments where existing processes are valued, this desire to change things up
can ruffle some feathers and that is exactly what she faced while trying to rebuild her lost
community. Diya realised that her primary objective of saving Ajanta could only be
accomplished by encountering the misconceptions the people had towards Ajanta and of
her actions in the past. Only through holistic development and personal well being of each
individual would they truly see the bigger picture . The movie beautifully captures how each
character develops and finds themselves.

Diya made people ready to participate in the show by showing them a vision of saving the
Ajanta. Even after initial opposition by villagers, authorities and even her close friend, she
her self trained the participating actors by teaching and training them. Diya has no support
from villagers in achieving her mission, but her self confidence and positivity in achieving
her goal made the task possible. She also showed empathy towards her team, when some
of the members were having difficulties or problems. People involved in the play
understood that what they were doing and why. She respected all the actors as well as
those people who were in her opposition. She also listened to her team regarding their
problem in achieving the best performance as well as their personal problems. This was the
one of the main reason why all the team members positively accepted her.

The right balance of these styles helped Diya actualise her primary objective. In this process
she ended up healing and patching various wounds that people of the community bear. She
played the role of a friend, a counsellor and a good leader who sheltered all under her
umbrella

As per many researches and studies, it has been found that the leader who shows the mix of
leadership style are more successful than the leaders only adopting one type of leadership.

Considering above listed characteristics, Our team members agreed on the conclusion that
majorly Diya displayed authoritative, charismatic and transformational leadership style.
 Gallery

Picture Above : - Diya (Centre) teaching two of the actors, Imran(left) and Anokhi(Right)

Picture Above : - Diya listening to and Diya solving Anokhi’s problem

Picture Above : - Diya and the team.

Source of all Image : Yash Raj Films.

 Individual Submission

Was Diya task oriented or people oriented?

 1. Aakash Ghosh – 191301

The protagonist of the movie (Diya) fights all odds to protect and resurrect Ajanta. Ajanta
theatre lies in the heart of the town and was once the hub and life of the community. Most
of Diya's fondest memories are rooted in this town and theatre .Now, she picks up the
gauntlet to turn it’s ruins into a vibrant and bustling theatre that was once the soul of her
little town, while fighting discrimination, resentfulness and her own demons.

On this journey she displays qualities of a leader whose vision is clear and her targets are
set. However, her power structure is people oriented (referent power) .She uses her
authoritative leadership characteristics to lead everyone to see and visualise the essence
and impact of Ajanta in the town of Shamli .She uses her coaching leadership tendencies to
personally develop all those individuals she comes in contact with. She believes that people
of the town would only realise the true meaning of Ajanta once they find themselves and
what they really stand for. The personal development of each character plays a pivotal role
in attaining the primary objective which is to revive Ajanta.

I believe the protagonist of this movie (Diya) gains power from the love and well being of
people and uses it to reinstate Ajanta’s position in society. She is people oriented as she
realises that her primary objective can only be reached through the development of the
individuals in the town. She guides and coaches them to become better versions of
themselves and in all eventuality is able to restore Ajanta to the hub and heart of the town
it once was.
 2. Aakash Chavda – 191302

I think Diya was Task oriented as well as people oriented.

Diya was given the task to save the Ajanta. She put all her effort to achieve the task. Even
after a lot of oppositions from local authorities as well as villagers, she was firm in her
mission to fulfil the given task. She was also people oriented, because to save the Ajanta
from demolishing is the last wish of Makarand, which indicated that the task is indirectly the
proposal of an individual (Makarand). She gave the full priority to fulfil the wish of a dead
person. She would have returned back to US, if she wanted to. But to give the respect and
preference to Makarand, she took the initiative to save the Ajanta. Many other incidents
showed us how Diya’s was people oriented. Anokhi (Laila) was in love with Imran Pathan
(Majnu), but Imran was not interested in her. In that situation, Diya helped and advised
Anokhi to get her love. She also made Mr. Chojar from too conservative to a loving and open
minded husband which Mrs. Chojar wanted him to be. Other incident was, her best friend
Najma betrayed her by spreading the news of her “not so good” character on the request of
her husband Farooque. However, later she understood the selfless intentions and pure
nature and of Diya to save the Ajanta and turned back to Diya to help her in achieving the
task.

So, according to me, if Diya would have acted only as a task oriented leader, than she would
not have succeeded in her mission. She took interest in some of the issues which were not
the part of her task. Which shows that she was task as well as people oriented.
 3. Aayushi Mehta – 191303

Diya was task oriented. Let us see how. Diya returned to InDiya in the Dance theatre where
she first learnt how to dance. She returened as her teacher Makarand left a message for her
as his final wish of saving the deserted dance theatre. In the entire two months of time she
had. She kept herself high and fought through all the challenges being faced by local people,
performers etc. Her wish to host " InDiya's biggest show ever". She calls on the people to
help her with a performance of the famous laila majnu play. Jeering at her, people kept
leaving the theatre. Refusing to defeat, she goes on the street to call for talent. She kept
struggling without leaving any stones unturned to fulfill her task. Later on the D- day the
entire crowd of the city comes to Ajanta. All the hardwork done by Diya towards the
performance leaves the audience amazed. She definitely possess the underlying
commitment of her hometown. At the end, she also says to Uday that the city needs itself. I
just needed to come back to do my task. I have fulfilled my responsibilty. This states that
she was majorly Task oriented and didn't leave any stones unturned during the two months.
 4. Abhinaya Malasi – 191304

Dia Srivastava showcased immense task oriented skills while managing the event. Although
she was considerate about the intentions of her assigned group the task of saving the Ajanta
was her first priority given to her by her master . Even after years of living abroad, she still
had an attachment for the place where she spent her younger years training for her passion.
She had decided that the role of Laila would be played by another person even when Anokhi
insisted to play that role . Anokhi had personal motive to play the role of Laila as she was
attracted towards Imran who was playing the role of Majnu and she tried to persuade Dia a
lot but still Dia remained adamant towards her decision of giving the role to someone else.
Dia also showed her consideration for Anokhi’s affection when she realized that Anokhi
genuinely felt attracted to Imran . Dia is a very considerate person and feels compassionate
towards other people’s dreams and objectives but in this case her primary objective was to
save the Ajanta and everything else was secondary for her .She even sacrificed her own
family plans in order to carry out the plan to save the Ajanta.

Finally we can conclude from Dia’s actions that she is a task oriented person and has an
affinity to see the bigger picture while remaining considerate for her group member’s
objectives . She is the right type of person to carry out a task as she remains focused on the
objective while also remaining empathetic towards her group members ,this in turn
motivates her group members for carrying out a main task.
 5. Abhishek Vyas – 191305

According to me diya is a people oriented person. The challenge which she took was to save
ajanta from demoliton wasn't that easy as that was bto fulfill the challenge she have to take
all the people of that little town with her.people oriented person is one who's main focus is
on interaction with people.

Diya was a very open minded person. Someone who dont mind about taking any challenge
for the person who is attached with her heart. Therefore without even having any plan in
her mind,she took that challenge just for the sake of ajanta and foe the people of that town.
After so much troubles she didn't backed out,but instead she become more challenging
after each situations,till a point comes when all of the crew stopped supporting her.she was
working with a team who were not supporting her and and rest were not interested in that
drama. But she gathered all the people with her and showed ajanta crowd what they are
capable of.

Diya took the task on her hand,but for her, bring the whole public with her was the main
task ,completing the task and to stop the demolition wasn't her main priority. She tried to
convince and motivate everyone to support her. And that was she did finally. That was a
true quality of
Thank You

THE END