Sheekha Bureau
Port Blair, July 23: Pramod Navinder Singh an Islander, has shown tremendous courage in chasing his dream and making it big in film city Mumbai. Pramod, despite having many disadvantages of living in remote Island, has now brought good name for Andamans and has become a role model for youths.
Pramod was born in a small village of South Andaman Called Wimberlygunj on 30th January 1973 at Bambooflat Hospital to his parents Late Mr. Chowdhury Navinder Singh ( Well Known Social Activist for the physically disabled in the island) and Late Mrs. Shakuntala Singh ( a school teacher then). His Great Grandfather Chowdhury Fakir Chand who has been bought to the island of then so called KALAPANI in 1919 as a freedom fighter prisoner served the term for 28 rigorous years and after the independence in 1947 as they were set free his grandfather stayed back got married and settled down in the island itself.
Promod Singh has begin his educational career from Kanyapuram Primary School and qualified to pursue his high school at Wimberlygunj Senior Secondary school, as Wimberly gunj was a small town with limited electricity and limited facilities in that era he wasn’t explored well during his childhood except his small village for so many years unless one day his father bought him to Port Blair to show him a movie in the only cinema hall called LIGHT HOUSE, as a grown up kid it was the night when he came to knew that there is a parallel world running around him which he wasn’t aware till he was exposed to movies, and then came in another cinema hall of that era called Mount Batten and the movie watching trips with his dad continuous and was exposed more till he came to knew that the place where he was living is an island and its called KALAPANI fondly by outsiders and being a freedom fighters grandson he hated that name and he decided to set free from the island and go to the gigantic main land to do something big and make a name for his island in whatever scale he can.
After completing his 12th standard from Wimberlygunj school when he was just 18 years of age he made up a story among his family that he want to pursue his higher studies in the mainland but since getting permission from the family to go out of the island at this young age was impossible so one fine day he ran away with his class teacher convinced him that he has got permission from home to pursue higher studies in the main land and any how managed to come to the mainland “Calcutta” for the very first time in his life in the year 1988.
As he was zapped to see the gigantic Calcutta city he got scared and since there was no phone in his village he wrote back to his family about his whereabouts in Calcutta after two months but never revealed his dreams to them and his next target was to go to his favorite the so called capital of the movie industry “ Bombay” then, Mumbai now, after spending two years in Calcutta he left his studies in between and moved to Bombay with merely 750/- rupees in his kitty in the year 1990. In Mumbai after spending 2 long years on pavements and doing odd jobs like watchman/ servants/ boy etc. to cope with for his living during his struggle he finally met Mr. Gulshan Kumar, the owner of an upcoming music company then called “T-series” ( Now They are the no.1 in the movie and music industry) and started working with his company as a driver in merely Rs. 1200/- as his salary later he was promoted to a Production manager of one of their Hindi Feature film Called “Aayi Milan ki Raat” and then on he worked for few more movies till Mr. Gulshan Kumar was shot dead in 1997. After his death the smooth sail for Promod has once again got him back to the square one and another phase of struggle started till he met the famous producer-director Vidhu Vinod Chopra and started working in his company Vinod Chopra Films as a personal directors assistant to his films “ Kareeb”, “Mission Kashmir” and pre-prep of “Munna Bhai-MBBS” with Raj Kumar Hirani and sharpened his ability of this art called movie making, despite getting some stability in his life and despite getting good offers from various Hollywood and bollywood production houses, Promod Singh didn’t grabbed it for a comfortable life as his mission was totally different from the rest as he was out of his comfortable life in Andaman to set an example for the youngsters and talents in the island, so he again left his juicy various job offers and started working towards his dream of making the fellow islanders of Andaman & Nicobar islands proud of him one fine day and follow his path to make it big in this mammoth world of cinema.
After struggling for 28 long years he finally broke the ice with the release of his first solo music album as a composer a week ago on EID “ Allah Hu Akbar- A Sufi trance To Allah” and till now the Music Video has got praises from all over the world and with a landmark views of around 9.5k in its first week itself and counting.
After the successful run on You Tube for a newcomer and accepted well by the audience he is coming with another Music Video on the “Bakri Eid “ in August called “Allah hu akbar- A Qawwali Rap To Allah”, and after Seeing the response of such kind to Promod’s Debut album, the gigantic Music Barren of the Music industry T-SERIES has roped him in for a Punjabi feature film and Music album called “OK REPORT” as a Director and a Music Director which is due to release this year.
The Story of Pramod has once again proved that these Islands and local Islanders have tremendous potential. The only thing they require is proper exposure. Pramod might have to struggle more for reaching at the top but this story of all struggles faced by him to reach to this level, will certainly be a big motivation for local youths.
feels proud be an islander.