BHUBANESWAR: With a million aspirations in his heart and just Rs 800 in pocket, Oriya boy Yash Patnaik had reached Mumbai – the City of Dreams. Though he dreamt of making it big in Bollywood, Yash had to route his dreams though the television world. Today, he is one of the reigning producers in Indian television having produced popular shows like CID, Aahat, Achanak, 35 Saal Baad, Raat Hone Ko Hai, Monice Mogre Case Files, Chehra, Jamunia and the presently running Rang Badalti Odhani. Apart from this, he has made more than 100 documentaries on wildlife and human interest stories.
A resident of Bhubaneswar and a political science student from Ravenshaw, Yash moved to Pune to do journalism from Symbiosis after his graduation in 1994. He then moved to Mumbai and worked as a journalist for quite some time before joining TV software production company Fireworks (makers of CID). After working with Fireworks for a period of seven years, Yash decided to move out. This gave birth to his production house Beyond Dreams Entertainment Limited, which he started with his wife Mamta Patnaik - the creative Director of Colours channel – in 2007. “Starting our venture was a bit scary in the beginning. I was not sure if I will get another job if I failed at this but we knew we had age to bounce back on. At Fireworks I was virtually running the show in all regards. So when we approached channels with our content, we were welcomed and 9X gave us our first show,” he recalls.
Through Beyond Dreams, Yash produced more than a dozen serials for channels like Star Plus, NDTV Imagine, 9X, StarOne, Pogo, Cartoon Network, Zee TV and a regional channel Star Prava.On his career, he says: “Whoever comes to Mumbai either wants to be a director or an actor. I came here to direct feature films. TV was a compromise to start with but I soon realised that TV is big too. It has its own drawbacks and limitations in terms of canvas, storytelling, characterisation and implementation.
Last December, Beyond Dreams Entertainment released its creature horror film called Kaalo, which is based on a witch. The live action-cum-animation movie has been written and directed by Wilson Louis. An interesting aspect of the movie is that it does not have a single night scene which are almost synonymous with spooky horror flicks. Kaalo has already won international acclaim and awards worldwide including Best Film at the South African Horror Fest out of 150 International horror films. Talking about the film and his move from TV to films Yash says, “My television journey has been great till now. I have been in this industry for the past 15 years and done about 30 shows. But now I thought of doing something good on a bigger scale and the result was Kaalo.”
Yash is at present working on his multi-million next production - a historic epic on Buddha to be directed by Shyam Benegal. The movie will be co-produced by Beyond Dreams Entertainment Limited and Light of Asia Foundation of Colombo. “For reference we have a script from Robert Bolt, who is one of the biggest names in Hollywood,” he says.
This producer from Orissa also plans to venture into Oriya cinema but only after he understands the distribution pattern of movies here.
diana@expressbuzz.com