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From Video Cassette Librarians to Filmmakers

Monday 3 October 2016 | 6:24 AM | By Geetanjali

Probably the most dynamic of all industries that changes people’s lives completely is the film industry we fondly call Bollywood.

Millions of aspirants come to the city of dreams everyday to try their luck in Bollywood and why not there is glamour and money galore. Talking of filmmakers who tell us beautiful tales on the big screen and give us those hours of entertainment are the ones who should be applauded. Few of them though were never born with a silver spoon, they fought their way through immense struggle to shape up films that we still remember.

We are going to share with you some of the remarkable stories of filmmakers who were earlier film video cassette librarians.

One of the most popular name in that list is perhaps the multiple national award winner MadhurBhandarkar who ushered in an era of powerful women oriented films like Chandni Bar, Page 3, Corporate, Fashion and Heroine.

Bhandarkar worked as an errand boy in a video cassette library in Mumbai delivering tapes on rent from one house to the other. As a result he had a huge collection of films at his disposal and that shaped up his resolve to become a filmmaker which led him to assisting small time directors before venturing on his own as a director. Rest as they say is history.

Another known name who has overtime fizzled out is Ram Gopal Varma who is known for hits like Bhoot, Rangeela and Sarkar. Before becoming a known filmmaker and moving base to Mumbai, Ramu ran a video cassette library in Hyderabad and was ardent lover of films.

One more inspiring story is that of JayantiLalGadda who established the film production company Pen India which has produced films like Kahaani, Singh is Bliing, Its Entertainment and latest Shivay. The journey thus far wasn’t easy for Gadda, he made a living by renting out video cassettes at Rs 10 and moved on to wedding photography until he found good business sense in buying movie copyrights for television screening.

Infact not many know that JayantiLalGadda is the man behind the first ever screening of Sholay on television screens. The man later moved on to build his own production company and produce hit films.

One man JayantiLalGadda must thank for his success as a businessman as far as buying film copyrights was Dhirubhai Shah who taught him the tricks of the trade. Dhirubhai was the king of video cassette distribution business at the time and owned the popular Time Audio and Video. He later went on to produce some films like The Hero, Kismat and Gambler in early 90s and 2000s.

Other such filmmakers who turned cut into Bollywood from video cassette rental library were the Maroo brothers of Shemaroo, Kishore Lulla, now chairman of Eros Entertainment and filmmaker Kumar Taurani of Tips.