Magnum opus

MY FIRST MILLION

A Calcuttan who spends a good part of his twenties working in theatre productions, and starts off with a salary of Rs 2,800 at the age of 29, is usually written off as a also-ran professional.

Not Aniruddha (Tony) Roychowdhury , who while sipping tea and driving around scouting for locations in his Mahindra Scorpio, casually mentions that 10 years down the line, he makes around Rs 2.5 crore per annum, under the banner of his production company Opus films.

"I started my career as a production executive for Jain Satellite Television. Before that, I was what most of Kolkata intellectuals are when they pursue the finer arts like theatre "" unemployed.

After a satisfying stint at the Theatre Arts Workshop, where we did plays of Shakespeare, Brecht and Grass, I decided to move on to financially more viable avenues.

And it was Jain TV, which gave me the first toe-hold in the world of production. A South Point alumni, I had originally wanted to be an actor, star struck as most kids of impressionable age, would in those days. But thankfully, better sense dawned and with the channel bom taking place in the early 90s, I knew that television was set to receive a content boost.

Jain TV, gave the opportunities to work in song-based Bengali serials like Sure Sure Gaane Gaane and documentaries like Sesh Nayak.

Thereafter, I also started working on independently and went on to direct telefilms for Doordarshan .

Meanwhile, working in the same run-of-the-mill stuff at Jain TV, I worked with Indrani, my boss and today, my better half, and the two of us started Opus.

It was in 1995, when Indrani and I laid the first stones of Opus Communications, with a paltry investment of Rs 54,000, which was spent mostly in setting up our office. However, unlike most first timers, we got lucky, and within days, we got an assignment to do a presentation film for a financial company.

In fact, by the time we got our first cheque, the Opus account had not yet been opened "" and a comedy of errors resulted! Nevertheless, such hiccups not with standing, Indrani and I managed to clock Rs 70 lakh, in our first year of operations, mostly relying on making audio-visual presentations for companies.

It was the following year, when we got into the ad film making world with brands like Borocalendula and Anmol biscuits.

Despite our work, it took us time to convince agencies, that Kolkata was capable of delivering quality ad-films. For years, Calcutta has been looked upon as the 'poor man's Mumbai', and we knew, we had to break this mould.

We tried breaking into the Mumbai circuit of making tele-serials, but could not make a dent in the UTV- Balaji bastion. Nevertheless, the Mumbai trip opened our world, which led us to understand the cost structure of making films in Mumbai. And we used this knowledge to our full advantage while pitching for clients later on.

And while working on clients from Kolkata, we got a call from McCann Erickson, Bangladesh, which commisioned us to do the Coca Cola campaign for the region. Subsequently we did campaigns for Coke Sri Lanka as well, as well as other MNCs like Reckitt Benkeiser, Unilever and Nestle.

Our competence had already reached the ears in India, especially the East, and the South Asian experience, allowed us to successfully add reputed brands like Berger, Britannia, ABP and Philips to our roster.

Ad film making is a passionate process, and I bought a 35 mm camera in 2002, with which we shot the famous Sehwag-Parthiv Britannia Goli ad and the Philips underwater Titanic theme ad, for which we created the Titanic feel in a swimming pool in South Kolkata.

The next step for me and Opus, is to venture into the tinsel world, with a full-fledged feature film production. We have been looking at the sharp rise in interest towards 'meaningful' cinema in Bengal, thanks largely to Rituparno Ghosh and his brand of 'realism', and we wish to get onto the bandwagon, with tighter production values and good scripts. Domestic budgets but an international look "" will be our USP.

Meanwhile, we hope that with more and more brands coming forward, Opus will continue its 40 per cent year-on-year growth, as we reach out to other territories beyond Kolkata."