THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: He might have dumped a safe and high paying job to continue his romance with the big screen, but Jude Anthany Joseph says he’s got some terrific lessons on survival from Lal Bahadur Shastri (LBS) College of Engineering, his alma mater.
“From a homely place like Aluva, I landed in the politically charged LBS campus in Kasaragod. As I promised my family that I will stay away from politics, I didn’t join any party. Among the total 500 students, 492 were members of a particular political party and I ended up as their ‘accredited’ enemy. During that time, I met with an accident that left me with multiple fractures in one leg. When my college mates paid a visit, one of them commented, “actually we were planning to break that leg’,” quips the director who made his debut with the recent Malayalam blockbuster Om Shanti Oshana (OSO).
Jude had his proudest moment in the campus when the party members approached him to direct a skit. “During my final year, I presented a skit, which went on to become a rage among the students. When the inter-collegiate fest was announced, college union leaders requested me to take it to the fest. The funniest part was that the person who approached me was talking to me after three long years. It was the moment that I realised art was beyond all political rivalries,” he says.
There is another reason why his college life was eventful — a whirlwind romance. “It was a four-year-long affair. She was of a different religion and her mother-tongue was not Malayalam. But, I was very serious about it and even made her meet my family. But after the course, we broke up for some a reason,” he says. Jude adds that real life incidents involving his ex-flame has inspired his first film. “OSO is more or less my own campus life,” he adds.
Jude was no particular favourite of his teachers while doing his BTech in Electronics and Communication. “I was suspended thrice in the first two months of the course. At first I was not in the good books of my teachers. But when they realised that I was good at studies despite all the ‘extracurricular’ activities, they were happy. In the middle of all this hullabaloo, I completed my course without any backlog and I consider that a real feat,” he laughs.
He says bunking classes was a routine affair and he always managed to come up with one excuse or another for that. “There was a teacher with whom I got along well. Once, during her class, an attender came looking for volunteers to donate blood. Though I was very lean, I was the first to jump up from my seat. She asked me to sit down, saying, “You don’t even have blood for yourself!” he reminisces.
As Kasaragod was not a very happening place, Jude and his friends used to visit Mangalore during weekends. “Bekal Fort was another major hangout point. As we had limited avenues to have fun, we spent most of our time in the hostel,” he says.
Another highlight of his campus days were the regular theatre visits. “Every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, you could find us there, as it was our only entertainment. When CID Moosa released, we reached the theatre at 8 in the morning. When the screening was cancelled, we were furious,” he remembers.
Jude says he always knew he wanted to be a filmmaker. “I used to do mimicry and mono-acting, and at that time Dileep, who has a similar background, was already a big movie star,” he says. But most of his college friends used to mock at his aspirations. “I also had a bunch of loyal friends who supported me and believed in me. They were sure that one day I would definitely achieve my goal,” he says.
— navamysudhish@newindianexpress.com