Anant Singh
company, Videovision Enterprises, (now Videovision Entertainment) into film-making.
With a script from director Darrell Roodt, Singh set about making not only his first film, but South Africa’s first antiapartheid film, Place of Weeping. Telling the story of a black woman (Gcina Mhlope) who would not be intimidated by her brutal, racist white boss, the film came with challenges.
“I had never done film and didn’t know where it would go,” says Mhlope. “When you see us being chased by the police, that’s not acting. They were really chasing us. But Singh never flinched.”
“The industry I chose always had its challenges” says Singh. “When I started out, there were no opportunities in the film industry for people of colour.
“It’s a difficult industry at the best of times, but I had extra obstacles, especially since the support for Afrikaans-only films and the whole industry structure locally was against me. But I think these obstacles motivated me to persevere. Each struggle is an opportunity to continue to grow and learn – and with that comes success, sometimes.”
The film premièred in New York, with then mayor Tom Bradley declaring January 23, 1987 as Place of Weeping Day, and the international attention it received made the South African government allow it to be screened.
But the cinemas were still segregated, which meant he and Roodt had to view their film in separate cinemas.
“This had a huge influence on the choices I made later, in the films I decided to make. Segregation in Durban, at the beach, restaurants or cinemas, had an enormous impact on me,” he says.
That success gave rise to more opportunities and lit a fire in Singh. Telling important, authentic South African stories took priority.
In the late 1980s, he watched Mbongeni’s Ngema’s musical, Sarafina, about a young woman who joined the Soweto uprising, and approached the playwright about turning the show into a film.
There was also interest from to Freedom Hollywood. “The Walt Disney Company wanted Whitney Houston for the part of Sarafina,” he says, “but I said no. No one could play Sarafina better than Leleti Khumalo. She performed brilliantly in the play and on Broadway, and I was going to make this movie in my time the way I wanted to. It was important to be as authentic as possible. I think the most important thing, if you have a passion and desire to do something, is to never let go.”
Sarafina premiered at Cannes in 1992 to an audience of 3000 people and received a 20-minute standing ovation. Internationally acclaimed, the film’s success won Singh the industry’s respect.
Using his success as leverage, Singh made smart decisions. “He took a chance on me,” says Leon Schuster, talking about Mr Bones. “No one wanted to make the movie. No one but Anant.” Mr Bones raked in R33million, making it the highest-grossing South African film. It was beaten only by its own sequel, at R35m.
Singh understood business and used the success of each film to help make the next. And his passion to tell the kind of stories he wanted to tell never faded.
For Place of Weeping, he befriended South African activist Fatima Meer, who Nelson Mandela had authorised to write his biography, Higher Than Hope.
“Fatima was a close friend,” he says, “and she volunteered to take my letters to Madiba when she visited him in prison. When I proposed a film about Madiba, his response was ‘who would want to see a film about me?’”
The Long Walk to Freedom took 20 years to make and Singh got the rights. In a video interview, Mandela says: “Anant Singh is a producer I respect very much. And after much consideration, I have opted for him to tell my story”.
“I had the good fortune to be friends with Madiba,” says Singh, “and I think there were so many encounters I have enjoyed Long Walk with him, but the most important were the special moments when I could see him in private, when he showed his respect and gratitude in the most unexpected situations, like walking through a kitchen and making sure he greeted all the people there or the bellman at a hotel as we walked out, which is a quality I admired.
“I guess the most profound moment was the royal premiere of Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom in London which we shared with Zindzi and Zenani Mandela.”
In 2004, Singh chose to make a movie called Yesterday, which he was told no one wanted to see. It’s about a woman infected with HIV by her husband and whose only wish was to live long enough to see her child get educated.
“Everybody said it’s about Aids and it’s in Zulu, it won’t work, it’s not commercially viable,” says Singh. It became the first South African film to be nominated for an Academy Award.
Today, Singh is the chief executive and chairman of the Videovision Entertainment Group, chairs Cape Town Film Studios, and co-chairs Cape Town Metropolitan radio station Smile 90.4FM as well as the luxury, highrise development, The Pearls of Umhlanga.
“When I look around at some of the people I admire most, humility and respect are the most important qualities one can have. Success is also a team effort. I think you have to acknowledge the people around me,” he says.
Planning a R6.6 billion “home for the film industry and an opportunity to secure a larger share of the production pie that Cape Town gets” in Durban, along with a tourism resort and residential development, Singh says the studio will include recording studios, editing suites and offices for local production companies.
For now, he’s excited about the opportunities and creative talent emerging in the film industry.