The four that count

FREEZE FRAME

These are the people who make things happen

At the recent Film & TV Producers Guilds' Apsara Awards, four luminaries "� Dev Anand and B R Chopra from cinema and Prannoy Roy and Aroon Purie from Television "� were given special awards for their outstanding contribution to films and TV.

The four gentlemen richly deserve these accolades. They also represent two distinct generations as well as the two ends of Indian media and entertainment spectrum.

Baldev Raj Chopra was born in 1914 in Ludhiana. After spending his early years as a journalist in Lahore he came to Mumbai in 1947 and by 1948 had produced his first feature film Karvat.

He formed B R Films in 1955 "� incidentally the financier was Aroon Purie's father V V Purie "� and went on to produce many memorable hits like Naya Daur, Dhool Ka Phool, Gumrah to the more recent Baghban. B R Chopra was also one of the early entrants in TV with his hugely successful Mahabharat.

B R also has been a prolific ad-film maker and was involved in several popular commercials for Levers. For over 50 years, B R Films has remained one of the most respected, prolific and successful banners in Bollywood.

A lot has been written about the evergreen youthfulness of Dev Anand. Today's generation may know about the forgettable films he has been making of late.

However, what they may not know is that his Nav Ketan (started in 1949) has been the launching pad for well-known names like Guru Dutt, Vijay Anand, Raj Khosla and Yash Johar to Shatrughan Sinha, Zeenat Aman, and Tina Munim.

Many years ago, Dev Anand worked out the economics of film making. That's what gave him the ultimate independence to pursue his passion of film-making, irrespective of their box-office fate.

Aroon Purie and Prannoy Roy are both chartered accountants-turned news barons. While Aroon inherited his father's printing empire (Thomson Press), it was his own vision that gave India its first newsmagazine India Today.

He then diversified into broadcasting. Aaj Tak is still Hindi's number news channel. At 60, life has just begun for him, as he himself said at the ceremony.

Prannoy Roy is the quintessential intellectual, understated and enquiring while simultaneously a laid-back entrepreneur who loves his round of golf and weekend getaways in the hills. One of the most powerful interlocutors of power, he is seldom seen hobnobbing with politicians. He's an avid cricketer too.

Arguably India's best-known psephologist, he has also been voted as one of India's sexiest men. No one can deny that his is one of India's most credible face and voice and NDTV is one of Indian media's great success story.

This quartet embodies the diversity, vivacity, style and substance of Post Independent India and freedom of expression. Each, in his own inimitable way, has spoken out through his work whenever it was needed or even desired and all the four have been mentors for hundreds of very talented Indians who have gone on to excel themselves.

In fact, between the four of them, Anand, Chopra, Roy and Purie would have collectively touched the lives of more Indians than most so-called nation builders.

Amit Khanna (The author is Chairman of Reliance Entertainment and the views expressed are his own)