Making promos for blockbusters is childs play for this Lucknowite
Deep Saxena
What do Bollywood blockbusters Don, Jaane Tu…, Om Shanti Om, Taare Zameen Pe, Ghajni, 3-Idiots, and My Name is Khan have in common? Their Lucknow connection. St Francis College pass-out Amit Chandrra has designed the promos for these movies and both SRK and Aamir Khan have gone on record giving credit for their film’s success to this young professional.
Amit was also associated with Karthik Calling Kartik as associate producer with his partner Lalwani. The two are now gearing up to produce two more films under their banner Magic Beans which they are directing individually. Here HT City catches up with Amit.
Film promos is your forte, how did you get into it?
Anubhav Sinha (currently directing Ra.One) was doing TV shows and was fond of our work. He decided to call upon us for the promo campaign of Dus and we got it on a trial basis. The film got a huge opening weekend and everyone praised the promo campaign hugely.
Then the journey began. From Dus to Khosla ka Ghosla, big films to small films, we were doing them all and successfully.What was the turning point? Farhan Akhtar giving us Don. We became the obvious choice for a lot of producers/ directors thereon. A division under Surge (doing TV contents and films promos) was now a new company Trigger Happy Entertainment exclusively dedicated to film promo campaigns and I got a new partner in that company, a very young talented boy called Mukul Misra who is also from Lucknow.
Amir and Shah Rukh both have praised you promos. How does it feel?
Aamir and SRK have been really kind. It was post Don that Aamir offered me to work on Jaane tu..ya jaane na.. and Taare Zameen Par and SRK wanted me to do Om Shanti Om. We delivered those campaigns to the best of our ability and received huge praise. We have been working on all of AKP and Red Chillies films ever since. Aamir even got us on board for Ghajni and 3-Idiots. But honestly, there has been more to learn with both Aamir and SRK.Tell us something about Magic Bean?By the Grace of God, Surge was doing well and so was Trigger Happy. We were the leading players in the film promo business I decided to now venture into film production. I was then introduced to Vijay Lalwani (writer, director Karthik Calling Karthik) through a common friend. I really liked his work. We set up Magic Beans Films as partners and decided to produce KCK as our first film.
How did you turn associate producer in KCK?
KCK was the first film we wanted to make. Owing to my association with Farhan Akhtar on Don and subsequently Honeymoon Travels, Rock On, Luck by Chance, we went and pitched the film to Farhan to act and produce in partnership with us. He really liked the script and agreed to be associated with us. The film was produced under the banner of Excel Entertainment and Magic Beans Films and released well and we received huge accolades for our first venture.
Why did you miss Lucknow for the promotional campaign of KCK? Is it not a potential market?
Lucknow is definitely a huge market. At the time of release, our distributors were keen on us covering Delhi and Punjab in the North so we had to skip Lucknow. Having said that, I would definitely love to come down to my birthplace to promote my next venture.
Tell us more about your city connection?
I was born in Lucknow at Fatima Hospital, brought up there and completed my schooling up till class 10th at St Francis College before moving to Delhi to finish my plus 2 and college. Subsequently, I moved to Mumbai to do my CA. I lived at Gokhale Marg and then Gomti Nagar before we finally moved out of the city.
Any project for Lucknow?
Well, would love to come and shoot in Lucknow someday provided the script demands it. It is a beautiful city waiting to be explored, I’m glad my friend Roshan Abbas is shooting his debut film there.So what are your upcoming projects? Currently, myself and partner Vijay Lalwani both are working on different scripts. Within two three months the scripts will be ready. First Vijay will direct his script and then I will direct mine. Both films will be produced under our banner Magic Beans. He is now working on the promos of Ra.One, Aamir’s Peepli Life and Karan Johar’s I hate Love Stories.
Mum’s the world
CA Amit’s journey from Lucknow to Bollywood
Deep Saxena
Amit Chandrra’s journey from the state capital to Bollywood is filmy too. “In 1999, I came to Mumbai to have my sister wedded here, and I was pursuing Chartered Accountancy at that time. I applied for internship in a CA firm and dropped in my resume. And, soon got a selection letter,” he goes down memory lane.
But, being brought up by a single parent it was not easy to leave his mother back in Lucknow. “My mom took the bold step as her responsibility and agreed to live all by herself to let me pursue my dreams. I was auditing at a reputed advertising agency and started to realize I really enjoyed the media and all that revolved around it.”
The CA charm was wearing off for him and the media charm became Amit’s new passion as he decided to “move on”.
“I turned a freelance writer, started writing radio shows, scripts for TV promos, turned ghost writer for some people. Assignments kept increasing one after another and then the day of the CA results arrived — I had cleared my Exam.”
Now that biggest hurdle was convincing his mom that he eventually did and he got a year to prove him or move back to CA. “I’ve now realized that all mothers eventually give in to the children's whims because they are just too attached, and I use this to my advantage sometimes. So, I started picking up all the work and by the grace of God started doing pretty well. But, the idea of freelance was a threat. People still thought I was jobless though I was making 3 times more money than any regular job would give me. On top of that I really enjoying my work! So I floated private limited company ‘Surge’ and turned entrepreneur. From scripting promos for TV to dubbing them to editing them, Surge was doing it all... from TV promos to film promos, to producing TV content, we were evolving slowly but surely!”
And, he gives full credit to just one person: “To be honest, I owe it all to my mom who stood by me all through the ups and downs and peer pressure from relatives and friends and she allowed me to live my dream each time.”
Why did you miss Lucknow for the promotional campaign of KCK? Is it not a potential market?
Lucknow is definitely a huge market. At the time of release, our distributors were keen on us covering Delhi and Punjab in the North so we had to skip Lucknow. Having said that, I would definitely love to come down to my birthplace to promote my next venture.
Tell us more about your city connection?
I was born in Lucknow at Fatima Hospital, brought up there and completed my schooling up till class 10th at St Francis College before moving to Delhi to finish my plus 2 and college. Subsequently, I moved to Mumbai to do my CA. I lived at Gokhale Marg and then Gomti Nagar before we finally moved out of the city.
Any project for Lucknow?
Well, would love to come and shoot in Lucknow someday provided the script demands it. It is a beautiful city waiting to be explored, I’m glad my friend Roshan Abbas is shooting his debut film there.So what are your upcoming projects? Currently, myself and partner Vijay Lalwani both are working on different scripts. Within two three months the scripts will be ready. First Vijay will direct his script and then I will direct mine. Both films will be produced under our banner Magic Beans. He is now working on the promos of Ra.One, Aamir’s Peepli Life and Karan Johar’s I hate Love Stories.
Mum’s the world
CA Amit’s journey from Lucknow to Bollywood
Deep Saxena
Amit Chandrra’s journey from the state capital to Bollywood is filmy too. “In 1999, I came to Mumbai to have my sister wedded here, and I was pursuing Chartered Accountancy at that time. I applied for internship in a CA firm and dropped in my resume. And, soon got a selection letter,” he goes down memory lane.
But, being brought up by a single parent it was not easy to leave his mother back in Lucknow. “My mom took the bold step as her responsibility and agreed to live all by herself to let me pursue my dreams. I was auditing at a reputed advertising agency and started to realize I really enjoyed the media and all that revolved around it.”
The CA charm was wearing off for him and the media charm became Amit’s new passion as he decided to “move on”.
“I turned a freelance writer, started writing radio shows, scripts for TV promos, turned ghost writer for some people. Assignments kept increasing one after another and then the day of the CA results arrived — I had cleared my Exam.”
Now that biggest hurdle was convincing his mom that he eventually did and he got a year to prove him or move back to CA. “I’ve now realized that all mothers eventually give in to the children's whims because they are just too attached, and I use this to my advantage sometimes. So, I started picking up all the work and by the grace of God started doing pretty well. But, the idea of freelance was a threat. People still thought I was jobless though I was making 3 times more money than any regular job would give me. On top of that I really enjoying my work! So I floated private limited company ‘Surge’ and turned entrepreneur. From scripting promos for TV to dubbing them to editing them, Surge was doing it all... from TV promos to film promos, to producing TV content, we were evolving slowly but surely!”
And, he gives full credit to just one person: “To be honest, I owe it all to my mom who stood by me all through the ups and downs and peer pressure from relatives and friends and she allowed me to live my dream each time.”
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