CHENNAI: For years, Chinmayi Sripaada has been known for the voice that has travelled through some of Indian cinema's most memorable songs. But alongside her career in music, she has quietly built another world — one that began with her interest in Korean skincare and eventually grew into entrepreneurship and healthcare. Her healthcare venture, iGenClinics, recently hosted the launch of Ultherapy Prime at its new location in Srinagar Colony. What began with her interest in Korean skincare more than a decade ago has since evolved through SkinRoot and DeepSkinDialogues into a broader healthcare venture spanning aesthetics, pain and regenerative medicine.
You've spent years being known primarily as a singer. Today, you're building a healthcare institution. How did this come about, and what has your journey been so far?
I was interested in Korean skincare about 10-11 years ago. Then, I saw that there was an opportunity to legally import it into the country. So, I went through the entire process. We started a website somewhere at the end of 2018, beginning of 2019. Then, we rebranded that into SkinRoot. We were the first in the country to actually legally import Korean skincare, and now we have also launched a huge 10-year-old Japanese brand here in India.
The logical extension to something like that was aesthetic services, and I wanted to bring the best practices from Korea but the best of technologies from the US and Europe and launch them. We did that in 2020-21. Samantha came and launched it then, and it was called DeepSkinDialogues. Slowly, as we understood the space a little more, my brother also joined the business, and he is a neurosurgeon. So, we have also branched into pain and regenerative medicine, where there are no steroids, no surgeries.
Do you think the discipline of being a performer prepared you for entrepreneurship in a way that you did not expect?
I think that is a very different space. The creative space allows for a certain kind of thinking on your feet. But that doesn't necessarily have applications in the medical or clinical space. It is very scientific and needs to function in a particular manner and "I always had the entrepreneurial bug".
You have said authenticity is important to you. How does that translate into the way you approach this business?
I know what I am. Is this something that I would do for myself? So, I put myself first, and to see K-Beauty also, everything is something that I tried myself, and I knew it worked and started vouching for them.
Registering with the Indian government is a very, very long and expensive process. So, for me to do that, I wanted to make sure that I could stand by what I am saying, and it is very difficult for me to be, I mean, it is impossible for me to be inauthentic about what I am saying and what I am doing. Therefore, I know that whatever I am doing, I have to walk the talk.
Your personal experience with spinal and cervical pain seems to have influenced your move towards regenerative medicine. Did being a patient change the way you think about healthcare?
My pregnancy was complicated, and then I had a spine procedure as well. I was looking for something for the spine, lower back; it is all connected. I think also the kind of lifestyles that we have generally had, mostly sedentary, but otherwise also not maintaining the right posture, abusing ourselves that way.
Now, I got it done with a practitioner that I trust. She came forward to collaborate with us, saying that, ‘I would like to work with you because we are not a corporate set-up where we are giving monthly targets. “I do not want to get people to sign up and do things that they do not need.”
You've spoken about ethics in aesthetics. What does ethical practice mean to you?
Especially in an aesthetic practice where it is very predatory by nature, to prey on your insecurities. I told our doctors, all our staff, that you do not have monthly targets to achieve.
I will pay your salary even if it is out of my pocket. Yes, my growth might be slow. I might not have these big numbers to show on the balance sheet to attract more investors who are still willing to burn money. I am not on that journey. I want to build something that lasts, build something with integrity.
You've spoken about women being conditioned to tolerate pain. Has your own experience changed the way you look at women's healthcare?
I have probably been somebody who's pushed myself to the brink where surgery was inevitable. I had to be carried away because I couldn't get up. I had given birth to twins. I was overworked. I was doing so much, and I had ignored it. My pain tolerance was so high that I ignored the pain in spite of the fact that I could not sit and get up normally. Standard mentality all women have.
If music is the part of your life that gave you a public identity, what does building iGenClinics give you personally that music doesn't?
I think there's one thing here. When we started it as an aesthetic practice, we wanted to keep this as a space which is safe for all genders. We have a huge population that are non-binary who are our clients, who are treated with, it's sad that I even have to say it, but treated like anybody else. We treat them the same way as others.
I find it pathetic, but I wanted to create a space that is safe for all genders, have ethics and integrity as a bedrock, and not chase targets. The person who walks through a door is not somebody who definitely has to build before they leave.