The son, not the father

Ice People

Nandy has just directed ' 88 Antop Hill' which was released on June 27, 2003.

Produced by Nandy Junior and partner Kiran Shroff under the banner of Sarvodaya Visuals, '88 Antop Hill' is a murder mystery film.

That's no surprise either "� Nandy is a fan of Sir Alfred Hitchcock and his first feature film is a tribute to the great master.

Nandy is also inspired by filmmakers such as Steven Spielberg, Vinod Chopra, Guru Dutt and David Lean.

"Unlike 'Raaz,' 'Bhoot,' the to-be-released 'Hawa,' 'Saaya' and 'Darna Mana Hai' that are either films about ghosts or supernaturals, '88 Antop Hill' is a mystery film that deals with people you might meet in everyday life.

"People are scarier than ghosts," exclaims Nandy.

"The two-hour movie's music supports the film and takes it forward. Sound plays a very important role in this film.

For the first time ever, we have worked with a sound script. A sound script was written before the film was shot. The sound was engineered according to the script and is released with Dolby EX Surround," he adds.

Nandy started his career by assisting filmmaker Satish Kaushik in 'Roop Ki Rani Choron Ka Raja'. In 1993, he joined UTV and worked with Deven Khote.

In 1994, he joined his father's company, Pritish Nandy Communications. He worked there till 1998 but parted ways to start Sarvodaya Visuals, along with Kiran Shroff.

"While I was working with my dad, a time came when I realised that I had to be on my own. There was nothing personal. But there was a clash in the way the two of us thought on the professional front," Nandy admits.

"I have learnt a lot from my dad. He is a workaholic and I wish I could work as hard as he does," he adds ruefully.

Nandy reads a lot, watches a lot of movies and cricket and likes to spend time all by himself "� when he's not driven by his passion for making movies, that is. But what sets him apart from his father is a complete lack of flamboyance.

Products, please

Call him a products man. S Madhavan, president, global practices organisation, at the $10 million Servion Global Solutions believes that software products are hot.

"We started seven years ago as a system integration company. In 2000-2001 we decided to concentrate on products. We built our first product called CTI-Engine for the contact centre industry and successfully implemented it in 50 sites across the world, so becoming one of the first companies in India to build products for contact centres," notes Madhavan.

Then the company went on to design and build a multimedia contact centre platform, RAP (Response Application Platform) that allows an intelligent combination of inbound and outbound applications.

Why has it become important to concentrate on products? Explains Madhavan: "With the entire contact centre industry asking for tighter implementation cycles and less customisation, the way forward is building products."

Building products helped the company to earn product licensing revenues of $ 1 million during the year ended March 2002-2003. In the current year, Madhavan says, "the company is aiming to grow this by 50 per cent."

A BITS, Pilani, alumni with a M.S in management systems and a B Tech (electronics) from the Madras Institute of Technology, Anna University, Madhavan was earlier a key member of the R&D team at DCM Data Products.

While at TVS Electronics, he was responsible for successful launch of dot matrix printers and cartridge tape drivers in India. He then went on to head the personal computer business unit of Digital Equipment (India).

Free time sees him indulge in a game of tennis or listen to classical Carnatic music. Yes, he also does social work for old age homes and Helpage India.