On a chilly winter afternoon some years ago, a resident of our colony received a telephone call asking him to come to the iconic Taj Mahal hotel to discuss a business opportunity with a prominent personality. Upon knocking at the door of the appointment room at the hotel, he was addressed by his first name and asked to come inside. Upon entering the room, he was awestruck to find himself standing face to face with none other than the legendary Amitabh Bachchan.
This is just one of the several such mesmerizing anecdotes that fill the life of our guest for this column, Mr GD Mehta, who has rubbed his shoulders with almost every prominent film personality during his career with Bollywood spanning over five decades. The octogenarian Mr Mehta walked into the glamourous world of Bollywood in the late 1960s as the Financer cum Distributor cum Exhibitor and continues to remain associated with the film industry until this day through his company that has ably survived the ups and downs of Bollywood in all these years.
Hailing from Lahore, Mr Mehta crossed the border with his family as a little boy at the time of the Partition in 1947 and settled down in Jalandhar where his father worked in LIC. After doing his initial schooling in Jalandhar, he did his graduation in Science from DAV College in Hissar and thereafter came to Delhi where he landed up his first job in 1962 at a salary of Rs.250 p.m. which used to be a colossal sum in those days. His foray in Bollywood a few years later happened purely by chance and was facilitated by a good friend. There was no looking back for Mr Mehta thereafter as he passionately enjoyed every moment of his association with the film industry. Having served as the Vice President of the Film Federation of India and holding various senior level positions in Motion Pictures Association, Mr Mehta fondly recalls the major transformation that Bollywood has gone through in the last few years.
He takes tremendous pride in talking about the state of the art facilities for film production and exhibition that exist in India today due to which Bollywood now competes neck to neck with Hollywood to emerge as an entertainment superpower on the global map. Besides holding the agencies for well-known producers like ABCL, GP Sippy, Rajkumar Kohli & Pahlaj Nihalani, Mr Mehta is currently also playing an active role in digitization of cinema halls across the country besides carrying out the philanthropic task of coordination for the Military cinemas. He has won several awards and accolades during his career. The high point for him came in 2008 when he won the much coveted Dadasaheb Phalke award for his work.
A resident of M Block, GK-2 since the last 30 years, Mr Mehta refers to his wife as his pillar of strength in all his endeavours. They are blessed with two sons. While the elder son is supporting Mr Mehta in his business, their younger son is a media professional. Team Samvada salutes the undying spirit of Mr GD Mehta.
