Chartered Accountant since 2017. Self-taught filmmaker since childhood. Centra Media is what happened when I stopped picking between the two and started doing both for real estate developers in Nagpur.
I qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 2017. That was the family plan. The real plan, for me, was making films.
I had been shooting films since I was a kid. I edited on a laptop with a broken screen. I learnt every technique on YouTube. Nobody taught me. I just couldn't stop.
I started taking on small video projects on the side. Then somebody asked me to help with their real estate marketing. I looked at what the developer was spending and what they were getting back. The math was bad.
The agency in question was reporting clicks. Nobody was reporting bookings. The sales team was chasing junk leads. Nothing was tracked end-to-end.
Centra Media wasn't a company I planned. It was what came out of fixing that one problem for one client, properly. Word of mouth did the rest.
Five years later, that same system has driven ₹125 crores in attributed real estate sales. Most of our work has come through referrals — one developer introducing us to the next.
Premium residential and commercial developers in Tier 2 India, with ticket sizes from ₹2 to ₹5.5 crore. That premium segment is where our system performs best.
Site visits and bookings. Not impressions, not reach, not clicks. Every campaign is judged on cost-per-booking.
Fixed monthly retainer scoped to the project. No percentage of ad spend. No hidden fees. Pricing is on application because it depends on inventory size, not your ad budget.
People don't hire agencies — they hire someone they trust to think clearly about their project. That's why I stay close to the strategy on every account, not just the pitch.
Qualified as Chartered Accountant from ICAI. Started doing freelance video work on the side because I couldn't stop.
Shot more films. Edited on a broken-screen laptop. Learnt everything I needed from YouTube. No formal training.
Took on the first real estate developer as a client. Realised most agencies were charging for clicks, not bookings. Started building the system that fixed that.
@cinematic.ali crossed 50K followers on the filmmaking page. Centra Media kept growing through referrals.
₹125 crores in attributed real estate sales across the portfolio. 300x blended ROAS over 18 months. Nagpur named #1 Tier 2 market in India (Colliers).
The open-source era. Strategy, numbers, and unfiltered lessons, shared live as we build. We're setting a new benchmark for marketing transparency, and we're just getting started on what's coming next.
30-minute call. No pitch deck. An honest look at your project, the marketing math, and what the system would look like for you.
Follow the build
@alicentra
Daily posts on real estate marketing, the math behind ₹125 Cr, and the system behind it.
@ali.centra
Reels and behind-the-scenes from real estate campaigns. New page, daily updates.
Instagram82K followers
@cinematic.ali
Our founder's filmmaking page. 82K followers. Cinematic technique, gear, behind-the-camera.