Remember the famous ad film of yore with the jingle ` Chottu Neelam doi ….Ragual chottu Neelam doi` for Regaul liquid blue or `Home but not alone` TV spot for BPL range of products or the `I love you Rasna` commercial for soft drink mixes. Those memorable brand-building ad films were made by Chennai-based JS Films founded by two schoolmates Jayendra Panchapakesan and P.C.Sriram, the award-winning Cinematographer. After producing over 600 films, winning several awards, and opening the Bombay ad film market for other ad film producers in Chennai, Jayendra decided to join hands with another friend Senthil Kumar by merging JS films with Real Image, a leading provider of technology in the film, video and audio domains.
I
have known Jayendra for nearly 35 years from the time he produced a TV
commercial for MRF Tractor Tyres which was a client of Grant Kenyon
Eckhardt where I was working then. His team had produced more than a dozen
films for my agency Anugrah Madison over the years. A man of few words,
soft-spoken & self-effacing Jayendra has a penchant for experimenting with
new ideas in whatever he does. He is also a perfectionist who never compromises
on the quality of the job he is doing. I remember when he was doing a
commercial for Shriram Chits, he was not happy with the final output of a
particular sequence in a film. He reshot the entire sequence at his own cost.
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Sixty-five
years old Jayendra is a 100% Chennai boy. He comes from a well-respected,
well-to-do family. He did his schooling at Vidya Mandir where he won many
art competitions at inter-school and national levels. He got his BSc degree in
Chemistry from Vivekananda College. While in college he dabbled in staging
plays with Madu Balaji with scripts written by Madhu`s celebrity brother
Crazy Mohan. He was the Secretary of the Fine Arts club during his final year
in college. Obviously, the creative spark was in him right from his student
days. No wonder the boy with a degree in Chemistry switched to
advertising. How did it happen?
Jayendra
says, “ While seeing movies in theaters, I would keenly watch the ads and felt
I could do a better job than what I saw. One day my friend Chakravarthy
(chax) and I walked into the Carborundum Universal office in Chennai because we
thought we had an excellent slogan for Exide batteries. The manager who met us
told us that, that was not the way it works and that all their advertising was
handled by an advertising agency based out of Mumbai”. This motivated Jayendra
to think of advertising as a career.
Armed
with a PG Diploma in advertising from Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Jayendra started
his advertising career as a trainee at Inter Publicity in Chennai. Realising
that the real action was in Bombay he packed his bags and left for Mumbai. He
joined Clarion McCann advertising, where his friend Chax was already employed.
As budding copywriters, he and his friend Chax started working on all the
national accounts of Clarion. They soon became the talk of the town. People
spoke about two young writers from Chennai who were making a difference in Clarion’s
creativity.
Jayendra
is a restless creative guy. He says, “I was a writer for 8 years. I switched 14
jobs. If the environment was not congenial for good creative output I left.
Once I joined a national ad agency as creative group head. It was my fourth day
in office. Sitting in my cabin I was reading a book as I had not yet been
assigned any work. An elderly man with a grey beard walked through the room. He
saw me reading a book. I looked at him and went back to reading the book. After
he left, a lady rushed into my room and blurted with urgency “ he is our
chairman, even if you are not busy, pretend to be busy”. I stared at her,
packed my bags, and left. I sent a crisp two-word resignation letter.
“Previously yours” Jayendra”
This
is the point when Jayendra, bored with just writing scripts for ads, decided to
make ad films because he felt he could communicate better. On his return to
Chennai, he had the unique distinction of consulting with
three top agencies in Chennai at the same time – HTA, Mudra, and Sistas. As already
mentioned he joined hands with his schoolmate PC to start JS Films in
Chennai in 1986 which got its first film from Mudra Communications to do a film
for a national brand. Soon Mudra’s chairman Mr. A.G. Krishnamurthy, impressed
with the good work done, decided to give all film jobs from the Ahmedabad,
Mumbai, and Delhi offices of Mudra to JS Films. For brands like Rasna,
Vimal, Apollo tyres, and many more. Based on the success of the films for
Mudra, Balki, the creative director from Lintas (Lowe) started giving film
assignments for Lever brands. Pretty soon the JS team was doing ads for
many Mumbai agencies. The tables had been turned. From Chennai agencies
going to Mumbai for their films, Mumbai agencies started coming to Chennai for
their films. There was no looking back for the JS team.
What
made Jayendra merge a successful JS Films with Real Image?
Jayendra
says, “When I started doing ads, Senthil who was in college at that time was
doing graphics for me on a computer he had built. We were pushing technology to
do impossible things at that time. When Avid Technology asked him to distribute
their products in India he invited me to join him. In 1993 I teamed up with Senthil to set up Real Image,
introducing non-linear editing with Avid and digital cinema sound with DTS. I was a reluctant
starter as I was more creative than a businessman. But soon we started enjoying
introducing new technologies into the country like Avid, which did to
editing what word processing did to typewriting; DTS brought back audiences to
movies with 6-track sound; Digital cinema changed the economics of a
movie release. Made very wide release possible bringing enormous collection
right up front”.
Once
Real Image (now called Qube Cinema) hired a CEO, Jayendra went back to making
films. But not ad films. He made two feature films titled 180 in
Tamil and Telugu and later a Telugu film titled Na Nuvve. He made
two experimental Carnatic music films Margazhi Raagam and One.
Jayendra says,” For Margazhi Raagam I came up with the idea
to shoot a concert with 13 red cameras synched with each other (for the first
time in the world) and recorded the sound live and mixed it in 6-track surround
sound. For the first time, people watching this in the theatres got a glimpse
of how much was possible for the presentation of our concerts. Bombay Jayashri
and TM Krishna partnered my friend Srikanth (Aghal films) and me in this
initiative”
For One Jayendra got TM Krishna to sing amidst nature without any accompaniments. This was not a concert but a musician exploring his music. Again Srikanth of Aghal Films produced this film as well.
Recently Qube Cinema has set up a Virtual production stage in partnership with Annapurna Studios in Hyderabad. This will help films to be made in controlled conditions. Be it a location in the Alps or a busy stand in Koyambedu, the image is created on an LED wall, and when the camera moves the background moves in synch as if the actors are actually in the real location. This avoids complex post-production and VFX which are time-consuming and expensive.
Jayendra is also well-known in the industry for his deep involvement in social work. What inspired him to take social causes?
“I
have always been interested in helping people. In a spur of the moment I
started Bhoomika Trust in 2001 with my wife Sudha and some friends as our
response to the Gujarat earthquake´”.
Over the years Bhoomika Trust has worked extensively with
victims of disasters like the earthquake in Gujarat, the Tsunami in South
India, the Uttarakhand floods, the Jammu & Kashmir floods, the Chennai
floods of Dec 2015, Cyclone Vardah, the Odisha floods, Floods in Assam, Bihar, Kerala
and Cyclone Gaja, providing
immediate relief ( ration kits, vessels), long term rehab- building houses,
schools and helping people restart their livelihoods.
During the pandemic when the film industry came to a standstill, Qube had zero
business for 2 years with about 1000 employees to support. At the same time
film industry workers who live off daily wages faced the risk of starving with
their families. With Mani Ratnam Jayendra conceived the anthology Navarasa for
Netflix. Everyone in the industry came together to do the project pro bono.
Rs17 crores raised through this initiative was given to the workers in the
industry. Every worker was given a preloaded credit card and every month
Rs1500 was loaded in the card for 12000 workers which could be used only in
grocery stores. Bhoomika
handled the distribution
Besides providing help during
disasters, Bhoomika also offers scholarships
and assistance to deserving students. Has a “Let’s Learn”- Remote Learning
Program for Government School Children and “I wanna Learn” a Math learning platform for students in partnership
with Altius Foundation. Bhoomika also has a division called `True Gifts` which
provides an alternative to gifts presented during weddings or any other
occasion that the recipients may not need or use, Instead
you gift a `True gift` Certificate that says ` to celebrate your wedding we
sponsored a girl child’s education or sponsored an eye surgery for a deserving
villager`. The recipient is thrilled and a deserving cause is supported.
Jayendra
is on
the board of Altius Foundation ( running computer math lab in govt schools),
Jeevan ( earlier blood bank and now a public stem cell bank much needed for
treating blood cancer) Sankara Eye Foundation ( running 10 hospitals across the
country) doing free eye surgeries for rural poor.
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For Jayendra friends mean a lot. Jayendra’s very close friend and classmate Sriram, married and settled in Canada, died in a car accident on a visit to India. It shook Jayendra and disturbed him very much. Unable to come to terms with seeing Sriram’s wife Sudha and 2-year-old son Ashwin go through this agony he decided to visit them in Canada and see how he could help. During the visit, he ended up proposing to Sudha, got married to her in February 1990, and brought them back to India. That was one of the best personal decisions Jayendra took in his life because not only are they happily married but Sudha has also been a pillar of strength to him both in his professional and social activities. Sudha managed JS films, later moved on to head Human Resources at Qube Cinema. She is a co-founder of Bhoomika Trust. She is equally involved in all social initiatives of Jayendra.
Another example relates to his dear friend
Mahesh, a music director who had worked on many of his films. Mahesh died of
cancer at a young age, leaving behind a Will in which he had expressed a desire
to help Adyar Cancer Institute. Jayendra and his friends started Mahesh
Memorial Trust in 2002 and conducted a mega fundraising event with A.R.Rehman
offering his services free. With the money raised the Trust built the
Paediatric Ward at the Cancer Institute which it continues to support and help
running it successfully since it was started.
