 |
| Anurag Kashyap |
What can I say about Jhamu Sughand? When my Paanch was badly stuck and my wife was about to deliver a baby and I had no money, he was the man who gave me money. He took care of all the hospital bills when I was not doing anything.
His reason was: “I invest in people. In future we will work together.” Jhamu was like that. We didn’t do anything together till Black Friday. He was really a generous man!
He was not only an integral part of getting my Black Friday rolling but he was also funding my other film Gulaal. He was a great producer. Jhamu was a guy, once he trusted you as a director, he would never show his face on the sets and let you do your own thing.
Jhamu would pick new directors that nobody would touch. He would invest in projects that everybody would say: “Don’t!” He picked Sanjay Leela Bhansali post-Khamoshi and made Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam. He picked Ashutosh Gowariker post- Baazi and helped him make Lagaan.
Who would make big-budget films with newer directors after their first films have flopped? But maybe what Jhamu saw in Bhansali and Gowariker nobody else saw. Even for Ramu (Ram Gopal Varma). He invested in Rangeela at a time when his other film Nayak with Sanjay Dutt had stopped and Drohi had bombed.
 |
| Jhamu Sughand on the sets of Kaalpurush with Sameera Reddy. A Telegraph picture |
Add to that he would share the profits with the directors and make them producers. He would put in all the money but when the films came out, Gowariker and Bhansali were credited as producers while Jhamu himself was just a presenter.
Look at what he did for me. Even when Black Friday got banned after Paanch’s no-show Jhamu told me to not wait and make another film. And he financed Gulaal which had no star cast.
He had a knack for people. He wasn’t a creative producer in the traditional sense of the term. But he had a knack for stories. He and his family would listen to the story and if he liked the story and he liked you, he would just invest on an instinct. That was a great knack that he had. I don’t know how he had it because he didn’t look like a man who understood cinema.
Post-Hum Kisise Kum Nahin, the David Dhawan film with Amitabh Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai and Sanjay Dutt, he went into depression because he lost a lot of money. He was a very sensitive guy who could easily slip into depression. He had stopped meeting people and gone out of sight.
He had plans of investing a lot in Bengali films. (He had already produced Swapner Din and Kaalpurush).
Jhamu had huge respect in the film industry and everybody will miss the man who dared to back failed directors and make winners out of them.
jhamu sughand presents...
 |
Lagaan was India’s last and best shot at the Oscars
 |
Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam made a star out of Ash and Bhansali
 |
Bombay introduced Mani Ratnam to the rest of India
 |
Rangeela made the careers of Ram Gopal Varma, A.R. Rahman and Urmila Matondkar
