J.C. Anand
Profession – Producer, Distributor
Most Active Years – 1950s to 1960s
Nationality – Pakistani
Religion – Hindu
Ethnicity – Punjabi
Year of Birth – 1922
Year of Death – 1977
Debut Film – Sassi (1954) – As Producer
Last Film – Dulhan (1963) – As Producer
Significant others in the Film Industry – Satish Anand (Son, Producer-Distributor), Juhi Chawla (Grand-daughter, Actress), Sanjeev Chawla (Grand-son, Director)
Miscellaneous Info – Jagdish Chand Anand, like Agha G. Gul, rose from the ranks of Indian film distributors and contributed to the production of indigenous films. Better known as J.C. Anand, he was born in Bhera, a small township in the Sargodha district of Punjab. His father was engaged in a business which involved imports from Japan. It ran into problems due to the overall depression caused by the Second World War. Young and handsome, Jagdish found the film trade more lucrative and started his career in distribution working with a well-established distribution office in Lahore. He was also engaged in releasing films as a ‘second’ party. This meant buying the rights of a film from the main distributor to run it in a single cinema or at some small station. At the time of Partition the Anand family lived in Karachi, where people resided in peace and harmony even during the worst period of communal riots elsewhere. The Anands opted to stay behind in Pakistan. Jagdish was at the right place and at the right time to take a bold decision which brought him into the limelight of the film trade in Pakistan. He founded Eveready Pictures, and became one of the largest film distributors of Pakistan. He also produced a good number of movies.
Men of vision in the distribution business knew that once local films got out of the studios, the open market policy towards Indian productions would be threatened by the strong lobbyists of Pakistani cinema. Soon distributors, with finance mustered from the Indian releases, joined hands with producers of repute to make films locally. J.C. Anand followed his colleague and friend Agha G. Gul and produced Sassi.
Sassi was a great commercial hit by J.C. Anand and created an all time record for being the first golden jubilee film of Pakistan. Thus, securing the future of Urdu films in Pakistan. Other films to his credit include Miss 56, Ishq-e-Laila, Murad, Hasrat etc.
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