In General

Film producer G.V committed suicide today and it’s sad that such an entrepresing man had to meet a tragic end. He is better known as the brother of ace director Manirathnam and produced many of his hit movies like Roja and Thalapathi. About six months ago, I had a chance to meet him in person for over two hours as part of the “Meet the Business Press”. G.V was a chain smoker and his smoking habits somehow revealed the financial burden that he was reeling under. His latest movies had bombed in the box office. Inspite of all his problems, he spoke quite eloqently about the status of the film industry and even frankly revealed some untold insider information as well.

One reason for his suicide could be attributed to Michael Jackson. G.V had been the main organiser of the much hyped MJ’s show in India and was severely hurt financially when MJ cancelled the tour because of child abuse allegations. In addition to this loss, he lost even more tyring to sue MJ.That’s when his downslide started. He burnt his hands bad when he bought the Internet rights for over 2000 movies to be broadcast to Indians globall over the Net..but sadly broadband didn’t take off as expected.

But you gotto to hand it to him for bringing some semblance of professionalism to film production. His company was the first film production firm in India to go public. One of the guys I admired is now gone.