Passion for film making
Jawaharlal Shanmugan
NFDC (National Film Development Corp Ltd) had a tough project in the pipeline. It called creative director Jawaharlal Shanmugan (Joe Shan). NFDC’s regional manager D. Ramakrishnan briefed him about the job and the client, TIIC’s chairpers
on Santha Sheela Nair. She was keen to tell the success stories of first generation entrepreneurs benefited through TIIC, without a voiceover narrating the tale and with a true life feel to it.
The 17-minute ‘Indomitable Spirit to Succeed’ was shot on a limited budget. The camera was handled by Vincent, an up-and-coming cinematographer and former assistant of filmmaker P. C. Sreeram.
Cinematographer Haribhaskar also worked for one schedule. Jainulah Deen from NFDC Media Centre handled the editing and J. Lakshminarayanan, assistant manager, NFDC, coordinated the production.
Enormous homework
Joe did enormous homework. He captured various still shots on his digital camera and created a story board, discussed with Nair and other team members before the actual shoot.
Joe wanted it to be extempore, so he didn’t give the entrepreneurs any script. Their tale had to be told naturally and in their language. He even did some initial editing by cutting shots in a cohesive and cogent way to match the voice of the entrepreneurs. Every shot was thought about in its importance to story-telling. The film was completed on February 14 and officially launched the next day. Nair and the senior management were unanimous that it was slick and innovative.
Today Joe has become one of the preferred directors for NFDC. He has another project on Child Labour Eradication and Rehabilitation, which is in the final stages of discussion.
Joe gave up a lucrative corporate career because of his passion to make quality films.
He is waiting for a break into the feature film circuit and has seven stories backed by scripts and screenplays.
NFDC has come out with the initiative to co-produce films. Joe is now looking for someone who will be the co-producer of a low budget crossover film, ‘New World New Horizon,’ about corporate professionals.
Joe says, “It is the audience who will eventually decide the success or rejection of any film and that is why I give my script to a close spectrum of diverse people to read.”
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