Jayantilal Gada is an

Indian film The Cinema of India consists of motion pictures produced in India, which had a large effect on world cinema since the late 20th century. Major centers of film production across the country include Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, Ko ...

producer and distributor. He ventured into

film production Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, casti ...

under his

production company A production company, production house, production studio, or a production team is a studio that creates works in the fields of performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio, comics, interactive arts, video games, websites, music, and ...

, Popular Entertainment Network (PEN) India Ltd. He is known for producing the 2013

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

-language film ''

Mahabharat The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; sa, महाभारतम्, ', ) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India in Hinduism, the other being the ''Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the struggle between two groups of cousins in the Kuruk ...

'', which won Best Animation Film at the 3rd Fiji Film Festival. He founded the company PEN India (full name, Popular Entertainment Network India and also sometimes written as Pen) in 1987; today the company produces and presents

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...

films. Gada retired in 2014 at the age of 52. His son is the film and TV producer Dhaval Gada and was announced as his successor at PEN on 3 November 2014. However, Jayantilal Gada resumed office from 1 April 2016. Gada launched a new Television Channel named

WOW (Channel) Pen Studios (formerly Pen India Limited) is an Indian film production and distribution company established by Dr. Jayantilal Gada on 31 March 1987. Based in Mumbai, it mainly produces and distributes Hindi, Telugu and Tamil films. In 1992, th ...

. WOW's content mainly consists of various Bollywood Songs, old and classic Bollywood movies, new Hindi movies and Gujarati movies, along with South Indian (Hindi dubbed) movies, TV series such as Mahabharat and other content.

Early life and career

Jayantilal Gada is a Kutchi Vagad born in Lakadia,

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...

. He studied till 10th in Gurukul High School, Ghatkopar. He began working in his father's small grocery store, also taking courses in radio repairing and photography. Gada started a small video library in a section of his father's store, buying video cassettes from producers for distribution. This sideline grew as he first began hiring out video cassette players, then began filming weddings on video. Later, he moved into wholesaling videos. Popular Video Cassette Library was restructured and renamed PEN in 1992. After financial problems, Gada began moving into acquiring the copyright to films – at this stage he was aged 25.

Move into presentation and production

In 2004, Gada acquired the rights to supply Hindi-language feature films to public service broadcaster

Doordarshan Doordarshan (abbreviated as DD; Hindi: , ) is an Indian public service broadcaster founded by the Government of India, owned by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and one of Prasar Bharati's two divisions. One of India's largest bro ...

, beginning with the film ''

Yeh Mera India ''Yeh Mera India'' (also named ''Y.M.I. Yeh Mera India'' hi, ये मेरा इंडिया (भारत)) is a 2008 Hindi movie, written and directed by N. Chandra. The film stars Anupam Kher, Perizaad Zorabian, Sayaji Shinde Purab K ...

''. He convinced Doordarshan to show the remastered and extended version of the classic action-adventure ''

Sholay ''Sholay'' (, ) is a 1975 Indian Hindi-language action-adventure film directed by Ramesh Sippy, produced by his father G. P. Sippy, and written by Salim–Javed. The film is about two criminals, Veeru (Dharmendra) and Jai (Amitabh Bachchan), ...

'', which had record viewing figures despite its long running time. Gada also gained the rights to screen films on Zee. The Bollywood film ''

Kahaani ''Kahaani'' (; ) is a 2012 Indian Hindi-language thriller film co-written, co-produced and directed by Sujoy Ghosh. It stars Vidya Balan as Vidya Bagchi, a pregnant woman looking for her missing husband in Kolkata during the festival of Durga ...

'' was produced by Gada and his nephew Kushal Gada. In 2013, he produced the 3D animation film ''Mahabharat'', in which

Amitabh Bachchan Amitabh Bachchan (; born as Amitabh Shrivastav; 11 October 1942) is an Indian actor, film producer, television host, occasional playback singer and former politician known for his work in Hindi cinema. He is regarded as one of the most succe ...

Ajay Devgan Vishal Veeru Devgan (born 2 April 1969), known professionally as Ajay Devgn, is an Indian actor, film director and producer who works in Hindi cinema. Devgn has appeared in over a hundred films and has won numerous accolades, including four ...

and

Vidya Balan Vidya Balan (pronounced ; born 1 January 1979) is an Indian actress. Known for pioneering a change in the portrayal of women in Hindi cinema with her roles in female-led films, she is the recipient of several awards, including a National Fi ...

voiced characters. It made the highest box office returns of all animated films produced in India. It was awarded Best Animation Film At the 3rd Fiji Film Festival. PEN also produced the 2014 film ''

Entertainment Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and interest of an audience or gives pleasure and delight. It can be an idea or a task, but is more likely to be one of the activities or events that have developed over thousa ...

'', starring

Akshay Kumar Rajiv Hari Om Bhatia (born 9 September 1967), known professionally as Akshay Kumar (), is an Indian-born naturalised Canadian Quote: "(Former prime minister Stephen) Harper campaigned in 2011 alongside one of Modi's biggest celebrity backer ...

. Today Pen acquires worldwide rights to Hindi films and supplies them to networks such as Zee,

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

Sahara One Sahara One is an Indian Hindi general entertainment channel based in New Delhi. It is operated by Sahara India Pariwar. History Sahara One was launched as Sahara TV on 28 March 2000, which later in April 2003 was renamed as Sahara Manoranjan. ...

and

Star A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked ...

Filmography

The following is a list of notable films in which Gada's Pen India Ltd has been involved:

References

External links

*
Jayantilal Gada's Pen India Pvt movies
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gada, Jayantilal Film producers from Gujarat Living people Hindi film producers 1962 births Telugu film producers