G Dhananjayan

Education and work

GD holds MBA graduate from Sydenham Institute of Management SIMSREE, University of Mumbai (1991 batch). He worked in Asian Paints, Kansai Nerolac Paints, Saregama, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone for more than 15 years before joining Moser Baer Entertainment in 2006. Dhananjayan was company's Chief Operating Officer of Home Video Business and then chief Executive Officer of the Film Business.

GD was one of the two founding members of Moser Baer Entertainment, which was set up in April 2006. Within a span of 6 months, GD acquired the copyright/marketing rights for over 10,000 film titles in 10 key languages, including Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi etc. to launch DVDs and VCDs under the banner of Moser Baer. Thus, the company revolutionised the Home Entertainment market in January 2007, with the launch of DVDs/VCDs at an economical consumer prices of Rs. 28 (VCDs) and Rs. 34 (DVDs) and redefined the way the consumer looks at this segment. This helped the consumers have started to collect the titles for creating their own library.

Movie production

After joining Moser Baer Entertainment GD ventured into film production with "Shaurya" in Hindi and "Vellitherai" in Tamil. There after, Moser Baer produced and released "Sankat City" and "Hide & Seek" in Hindi, "Raman Thediya Seethai", "Poo", "Abhiyum Naanum","Kanden Kadhalai", "Aval Peyar Thamizharasi" and "Siddhu +2" with K. Bhagyaraj in Tamil and "Kaana Kanmani" in Malayalam in a span of two years.

GD was associated with UTV Motion Pictures (now called Disney-India) since January 2011 till February 2016. After joining UTV he had started acquiring and producing films in Tamil and Malayalam. The first film, UTV marketed after his joining was Deiva Thirumagal which was a critically acclaimed movie. He was involved in producing, marketing and distributing films. Under his supervision UTV had co-produced in Tamil "Vettai" and Vazhakku Enn 18/9 with Director N. Lingusamy's Thirrupathi Brothers, Kalakalappu and "Theeya Velai Seiyyanum Kumaru" with Sundar C and Khushbu's Avni Cinemax, M.Saravanan - Vikram Prabhu' Ivan Veramathiri and Suriya's Anjaan with Director N. Lingusamy's Thirrupathi Brothers, and "Naan Sigappu Manithan" with Vishal Film Factory. GD had produced under UTV banner "Muran", "Mugamoodi" ,"Thaandavam","Settai","Sigaram Thodu", Director S.P.Jhananathan - Arya's "Purampokku" and Director Vishnuvaradhan - Arya's "Yatchan" in Tamil. In Malayalam UTV had produced "Grandmaster" and "Husbands in Goa". In his last assignment with UTV, GD was involved in the marketing of Director Sudha Kongara and Madhavan's “Irudhi Suttru" in 2016, which went on to become a huge success.

Movie Distribution

GD has distributed the film “Zero" in 2016 under his production banner Blue Ocean Entertainment. In May 2017, he commenced his distribution company Creative Entertainers and Distributors and distributed the successful film “Ivan Thanthiran" [1] [2]

Contributions to film industry

GD 's initiative of buying the video rights of several popular Tamil movies, other south Indian movies and mass marketing it as DVDs and VCDs at economical price. Because of this initiative, several old Tamil movies were available in DVDs and VCDs at economical price with best quality. This was done to compete with unauthorized copies of DVDs typically sold for very low prices.

GD is known for his full involvement while producing the film with his director and observes carefully the way the movie is moulding in-shape without setbacks. Director Cheran once mentioned in an interview that producers should be like GD by visiting the shooting spots and being a part of the production process, so that they will know what hurdles the film crew is facing while making a movie.

GD is passionate about writing and has contributed several articles to Times of India, The Hindu Tamil, Dinathanthi Next, Deccan Chronicle, Indian Management, DNA, India Today and other publications.

GD has written the book about Tamil cinema titled The Best of Tamil Cinema: 1931 to 2010, in English, which was released by Legend, Kamal Haasan on 2 March 2011 in the presence of eminent film makers. Super Star Rajinikanth personally appreciated the book by giving a memento for the fantastic research and writing on Tamil cinema. The book has reached out to many Universities worldwide and has become a reference point on Tamil cinema for many interested foreigners to know about Tamil cinema.

Dhananjayan's second book was "Pride of Tamil Cinema", released in 2014. The book was released at Indian Panorama, Goa in 2014 and it went on to win the National Award (Special Mention) for Best Writing on Cinema for the year 2014. The book is highly appreciated by the film industry for the impeccable documentation of the films, which won the National Award or screened at Indian Panorama since 1931.

GD's monthly column in 'Galatta Cinema' for two years was widely read by eminent personalities in South Indian Cinema and was appreciated for his professional contribution to South Cinema. His article series in Tamil newspaper 'The Hindu' was widely read and appreciated for the valuable contribution he is doing by enlightening the readers on the happenings in Tamil cinema and the changes required. His collection of Tamil articles was published by 'The Hindu' under the title ‘Vellithirayin Vetri Manthirangal’ which is today one of the best sellers from their publication.

GD spends considerable time in interacting with students of various Film Institutes across India. He also delivered speeches at IIT, NIT and other management institutes on film business. GD is invited to various forums and programs to speak on film business, management and many other topics. GD also pursues speaking in All India Radio on public interest topics on many occasions and participates in several Television channel debates on Cinema.

Dhananjayan's second book was Pride of Tamil Cinema, released in 2014.

GD is the Founder - Dean of BOFTA Film Institute, Tamil Nadu’s leading film institute, based at Chennai.

GD’s series of articles in various newspapers won him his second National Award as the Best Critic of the year 2016. He is currently pursuing Ph.D on the Film Industry at Mumbai University.

Filmography

At Moser Baer Entertainment as the Producer or Co-Producer

Also associated with Abhiyum Naanum (2008) and Mayilu(2012) in funding the project to Prakash Raj's Duet Movies.

At Disney-UTV as the Associate Producer

As Actor

As individual Co-Producer under BOFTA banner

As distributor

Awards