Debt, fantasies cost GV's death
BBoop
Sunday, 04 May , 2003, 22:44
By Sridhar Pillai in Chennai
Tamil film producer G Venkateswaran, who committed suicide in Chennai on
May 3, had lived life king-size but died a miserable death.
GV, as he was known in industry circles, was a chartered accountant by
profession. Born with a silver spoon, GV was the son of the affluent
film financier and producer Ratnam Iyer of the then famous Venus films.
It was only natural for him to follow the family's business. He had his
own production house called 'Sujata.'
During the late '80s, his banner came out with a string of memorable
hits like 'Nayagan', 'Dhalapathi', 'Agninakshatram', 'Mouna Ragam' and
'Anjali'. He also had the distribution rights for over 200 films.
One of Venkateswaran's biggest contributions to Indian cinema was
bringing his younger brother Maniratnam to the filmdom.
A pioneer in taking steps to corporatise the film industry, GV even
listed his company's shares on stock exchanges.
The path he chose to tread was not wholly without risks. He ran into
trouble with Michael Jackson's India tour, which was aborted in the last
minute.
GV had made exhaustive arrangements for the pop star's tour in Indian
cities but the last minute confusions in schedules and cancellations of
the programmes had left his company in a total financial mess.
GV, for all his capabilities, was a dreamer. He let the dreamer in him
overtake his professionalism.
In 1996, he made Maniratnam's wife Suhasini a director with Tamil movie
'Indra,' which turned out to be a flop.
After the film's failure, his company did not come out with any new
release as he wanted play it safe by just distributing a few odd films.
Banks, to whom he owed a lot of money through several loans, had started
attaching his properties.
Things started going from bad to worse and GV could not even manage to
run his office. He had no other option but to go in for finance with
huge interest rates from private moneylenders.
When friends quizzed him about his growing liabilities his usual reply
used to be: "I have enough properties to set off my debts."
Last year, GV made the biggest blunder in his life by going back to
production, after a six-year hiatus. Perhaps he thought he could pay off
his creditors with the money earned by producing films. Unfortunately,
however, he did not do his homework properly as film making had
undergone vast changes in the intervening period. A slump in the film
business and video piracy only added to his woes.
ln a span of eight months (April, 2002 to January 2003), GV films had
produced three Tamil films, 'Thamizhan', 'Ye Nee Romba Azhaga Irukke'
and 'Chokathangam', which were all turned out to be duds.
It is estimated that GV had suffered a combined loss of more than Rs
seven crore because of the failure of those movies and it was the end of
the road for him as his shady private financiers started turning the
screws on him.
GV often used to blame the huge remuneration demanded by lead artistes
and vowed that he would never make any more films.
He had already pledged his twin theatres in Thanjavur to a private
financier on mortgage and cash flow had fully stopped.
Meanwhile, it is said that some of his creditors had threatened him and
on that fateful Saturday. A telephone call is said to have upset his
mental balance.
GV Films was a one-man operation that turned sour. The company owes
banks nearly Rs 16 crore and GV is said to have borrowed in his
personal name another Rs five crore.