Patricia Mukhim profiles the large-hearted Shankar Lall Goenka, involved in social projects in Meghalaya and Assam
A PHILANTHROPIST involved in social projects across Meghalaya and Assam, Shankar Lall Goenka belongs to the family that donated generously for building the Ganesh Das Hospital. His latest project was producing the film Ajeyo that won the Rajat Kamal for best picture in Assamese language in the 61st National Film Awards this year. The film is directed by the veteran Jahnu Barua and is based on the Sahitya Academy Award winning novel Asheerbador Rong by Arun Sarma.
Born in Shillong in 1935, Shankar Lall Goenka is the youngest son of late Jeevan Ram and Mungi Devi Goenka. His father was an entrepreneur and established several businesses in Shillong and Guwahati. Film exhibition became a part of Goenka senior’s business operations in 1926 when he established the first cinema hall in the Northeast – Kelvin in Shillong, the then capital of undivided Assam. Apart from Kelvin, he also established two more cinema halls – one in Guwahati also called Kelvin (1932) and the other in Shillong called Bijou (1935).
Shankar Lall Goenka was deeply interested in film business and at a very early age started managing his family’s cinema halls. He diversified from the traditional film exhibition business to film distribution in 1960, when he joined his friend, late RB Mehta as a 50% partner in Jab Pyar Kisi Se Hota Hain and Junglee. This partnership continued till 1971. During those years they released many films under the banner of RB Films, which included Ek Phool Do Maali, Bees Saal Baad and Yaadon Ki Baraat, etc.
In the 1960s, he was involved in another ambitious project of the Goenka family – to establish a modern and state of art cinema in Shillong like those in the metros. For this project he traveled far and wide to get the best equipments, acoustics, etc., and the project materialized in the form of Anjalee Cinema in 1966. The first 70mm theater in the Northeast, it opened with the popular movie Cleopatra.
In the early 1970s, Shankar Lall Goenka watched Assamese movie Pratidhwani produced by music maestro Bhupen Hazarika and based on the king of Cherrapunjee and his friendship with his Assamese counterpart. He was so impressed with the film that he requested Hazarika to dub the movie in Khasi language so that it could be screened in Shillong for the local people to know the story and enjoy it. Hazarika consented to his proposal and dubbed the film in Khasi titled Ka Sharati. This was released by Shankar Lall Goenka at Anjalee. Since the proposal of dubbing the film came from him, Goenka, bore the entire expenses of dubbing. In that sense Ka Sharati may be called the first Khasi film produced by Hazarika.
In 1977, Goenka established his own film distribution office in Guwahati under the name of Goenka Enterprises. Instead of distributing films only in the Northeast, he ventured to become a partner in the entire eastern territory comprising West Bengal, Bihar and Orissa besides the Northeast. The films he handled included Laila Majnu, Kranti, Zameer, Ganga ki Saugandh, Bobby, Satyam Shivam Sundaram and Prem Rog. In addition, he distributed films like Hum Kisise Kum Naheen, Parvarish, Shalimar, Passage to India, Rambo and Enter the Dragon in the Northeast.
In 1981 Shankar Lall Goenka ventured into film production in partnership with RA Jalan from Kolkata and produced Manasi, a bilingual film in Assamese and Oriya. In recent years, he has distributed films of practically all corporate houses like Eros International (Cocktail, English Vinglish, Ram Leela, etc.), UTV (Rajneeti, Heronie, Chennai Express, Satyagrah, etc.), Viacom 18 (Bhag Milkha Bhag, Madras Café, Queen, etc.), Film Kraft (Krrish 3), Warner Brothers (Man of Steel, Conjuring, etc.), PVR Pictures (Shanghai, Breaking Dawn, Youngistaan, etc.), Fox Star (Bol Bachchan, Murder 3, etc.), Balaji (Bhool Bhulaiya, Main Tera Hero, etc.).
Besides distributing Hindi and English films, Shankar Lall Goenka has distributed several Assamese films like Joymati, Basundhara, Ramdhenu, Jaanmoni and Rowd. For his long contribution and service towards film distribution, he was conferred with the prestigious Dada Saheb Phalke Academy Award in 2009. This award was presented to him by Dev Anand – the lead actor of the first film he distributed (Jan Pyar Kisise Hota Hai).
At present he is involved in construction of a mall cum parking cum multiplex in Guwahati on the land where Kelvin Cinema was located. Apart from his film and other businesses, he has founded the Jeevan Ram Mungi Devi Goenka Public Charitable Trust in memory of his parents. The trust is involved in several socio-economic causes.
Owing to his long association with film business, the trust has since 2007 instituted an annual Life Time Achievement Award for Cultural Excellence presented to a person associated with filmmaking in the Northeast. The trust has also instituted the JMRD Memorial Lecture on cultural history, problems and solutions of creative art forms of the region.