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Jaideep Varma
Jaideep Varma
Jaideep Varma
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Jaideep Varma[1] is an Indian writer, screenwriter and filmmaker. He has made 5 feature films – Hulla (2008, fiction),[2] Leaving Home – the Life & Music of Indian Ocean (2010, non-fiction),[3][4] Baavra Mann – a Film on Sudhir Mishra & Other Indian Realities (2013, non fiction),[5][6] I Am Offended! (2015, non fiction) and Par Ek Din (2017, non fiction). The last three films were made part-time, and therefore on a limited scale.

Key Information

In 2013, "Hulla" was included in a book on unsung Mumbai cinema classics over 50 years, a book called "40 Retakes" by Avijit Ghosh.

Leaving Home was the first documentary in the history of Indian cinema to release nationally in theatres. It also opened the Indian Panorama at the Goa International Film Festival[7] in 2010 and won the National Film Award in 2011. At the 58th National Film Awards, the documentary went on to win the Award for Best Arts/Cultural Film.[8][9][10]

"Baavra Mann" won the "Best Documentary" award at the Washington DC South Asian Film Festival, 2013.

His third full-length documentary film was on stand-up comedy in India and the larger context of contemporary Indian humour. The film is called "I Am Offended" and it released free on YouTube in February 2015 and has over 1.5 million views - the only Indian full-length feature online to have these many views.

Before that, he published a novel (Local) in 2005.[11]

Between 1989 and 2000, he worked in advertising as a copywriter (in agencies like Mudra Communications, Ogilvy & Mather, Everest Saatchi & Saatchi, Nexus Equity and Cornerstone).

He also wrote for various publications primarily on music, most notably for the magazine Gentleman (magazine) between 1998 and 2001.

In March 2009, he accidentally created the Impact Index – an alternative statistical system in cricket. It has gone on to become the most written about alternative statistical system in the history of the game. From 2010 to 2017, he worked full-time on this. In early-2017, he also released a book Numbers Do Lie- 61 Hidden Cricket Facts on behalf of Impact Index (conceived by him) with cricketer and commentator Aakash Chopra (published by HarperCollins).[12][13]

Filmography

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References

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Jaideep Varma

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Jaideep Varma is an Indian filmmaker, screenwriter, and writer known for his independent fiction and documentary films that examine themes of music, cinema, society, and freedom of expression in contemporary India. Born on 7 August 1967 in Calcutta, West Bengal, Varma began his career as a copywriter in advertising and as a contributor to music publications before transitioning to filmmaking. His body of work includes five feature-length films, starting with the fiction feature Hulla (2008) and continuing with documentaries such as Leaving Home: The Life and Music of Indian Ocean (2010, the first Indian documentary to receive a national theatrical release), Baavra Mann (2013, a film on director Sudhir Mishra and broader Indian realities), I Am Offended (2015, an exploration of India's stand-up comedy scene amid growing intolerance), and Par Ek Din (2017). Varma's documentaries often highlight cultural and artistic figures while addressing social challenges, as seen in I Am Offended, which features interviews with prominent comedians and examines the balancing act of pushing boundaries in a climate of moral policing and demands for political correctness. In addition to filmmaking, he published the novel Local in 2005 and created Impact Index, an alternative statistical system for evaluating cricket performance.

Early life

Birth and background

Jaideep Varma was born on 7 August 1967 in Calcutta (now Kolkata), West Bengal, India. Publicly available information about his early life remains extremely limited, with no verified details on family background, childhood experiences, education, or formative influences appearing in reputable sources. This scarcity of documented personal history extends to the period before his professional career began.

Pre-filmmaking career

Advertising copywriting

Jaideep Varma spent twelve years working as a copywriter in the Indian advertising industry before leaving the field in 2000 to pursue full-time writing. This period marked his primary professional occupation, during which he was associated with several prominent agencies, including Mudra Communications, Ogilvy & Mather, Nexus Equity, and Cornerstone. In a 2011 interview, Varma described giving up advertising in 2000 to focus on writing, noting that his time in the industry reinforced his belief in the importance of ideas above details, even though he viewed advertising as having limited real application of conceptual thinking. His publisher's biography from around the time of his first novel confirms that he was involved in the advertising business until 2000, after which he wrote full-time. Towards the end of this phase, Varma also contributed to music publications.

Music journalism

Jaideep Varma contributed to music journalism in India during the late 1990s and early 2000s, writing primarily on music topics for various publications. He wrote music columns for Gentleman magazine, with his tenure at the publication spanning 1998 to 2001. This work overlapped with his primary career in advertising copywriting during the same period and served as an early outlet for his writing on cultural and artistic subjects. He also contributed to other publications and websites including Tehelka and Rediff.

Literary career

Published works

Jaideep Varma authored the novel Local, published by Indialog Publications in 2005. The book follows Akash, a 28-year-old Mumbai advertising copywriter who moves to the city and, facing accommodation challenges and personal difficulties, chooses to live as a homeless person on local trains while maintaining his corporate job during the day. The narrative structure is frequently interrupted as Akash encounters various characters on the trains, with their individual short stories woven into the main plot. The novel received positive reviews at the time of publication for its portrayal of Mumbai life and its varied characters. It later went out of print. Varma subsequently published the non-fiction book Numbers Don't Lie: 61 Hidden Cricket Stories in 2017 through HarperCollins on behalf of Impact Index, his cricket innovation.

Cricket innovation

Impact Index

Jaideep Varma developed the Impact Index in 2009 as an alternative statistical system for cricket, designed to evaluate players' true contributions by heavily incorporating match and series/tournament context rather than relying solely on traditional aggregates like averages or totals. The system assesses performances through multiple contextual parameters, including pressure impact, partnership building, strike rate under specific conditions, new ball impact, chasing scenarios, and series-defining contributions, aiming to reveal overlooked heroes and challenge flawed perceptions created by conventional metrics. Varma unveiled the Impact Index at the ICC Centenary Conference at Oxford later that year, marking its public introduction. From 2010 onward, Varma committed full-time to Impact Index for several years, sustaining its development despite significant personal financial sacrifices and describing it as a mindset shift rather than merely another statistical tool. The system has been recognized for its unique emphasis on context, positioning it as a distinctive approach in cricket analytics that accounts comprehensively for situational factors often ignored by standard statistics. In 2017, HarperCollins published Numbers Do Lie: 61 Hidden Cricket Stories, a book conceived through Impact Index and co-authored with former cricketer Aakash Chopra, presenting 61 narratives drawn from the system's data to highlight counter-intuitive insights into player careers and performances across formats and eras. The book, credited to Impact Index (led by Varma with Soham Sarkhel and Nikhil Narain) alongside Chopra, uses the analytics to re-evaluate cricketers' impacts and question established views shaped by traditional numbers.

Filmmaking career

Fiction filmmaking

Jaideep Varma made his entry into fiction filmmaking with his directorial debut Hulla, a 2008 Hindi-language feature film that he also wrote. The black comedy follows a stockbroker who relocates to a new flat but finds his sleep disrupted by the loud whistle of the night-watchman, sparking escalating conflicts with the building's secretary who defends the practice. The film features performances by Sushant Singh in the lead role alongside Kartika Rane, Rajat Kapoor, and others. Hulla holds an IMDb rating of 6.4 out of 10 based on 291 user votes. The film was featured in Avijit Ghosh's book 40 Retakes: Bollywood Classics You May Have Missed, which highlights unsung classics of Mumbai cinema spanning 50 years. Varma subsequently transitioned to documentary filmmaking starting in 2010 with Leaving Home – The Life & Music of Indian Ocean.

Documentary filmmaking

Jaideep Varma has directed four documentary features, beginning with Leaving Home – the Life & Music of Indian Ocean (2010), which he also wrote. This full-length film chronicles the journey of the Indian fusion band Indian Ocean, including the lives, influences, hardships, and activism of its members. It achieved a significant milestone as the first Indian documentary to receive a national theatrical release and opened the Indian Panorama section at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa in 2010. The film has earned strong critical appreciation, reflected in its IMDb rating of 8.8/10. His later documentaries were produced part-time on a limited scale. Baavra Mann – a Film on Sudhir Mishra & Other Indian Realities (2013) focuses on filmmaker Sudhir Mishra while also examining broader Indian realities, and it won Best Documentary at the Washington DC South Asian Film Festival in 2013. I Am Offended! (2015) explores stand-up comedy in India and the state of contemporary humour through interviews and clips with prominent comedians. It was released free on YouTube in February 2015, garnering over 1.5 million views, which was reported as unique for an Indian full-length feature online at the time, and it was selected for the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) in 2023. The film runs 102 minutes. Par Ek Din (2017) is his most recent documentary feature, also made part-time on a limited scale. These later works reflect Varma's continued engagement with documentary storytelling despite resource constraints.

Awards and recognition

Major awards and honors

Jaideep Varma received the National Film Award for Best Arts/Cultural Film at the 58th National Film Awards for his documentary Leaving Home – the Life & Music of Indian Ocean. His documentary Baavra Mann won the Best Documentary award at the Washington DC South Asian Film Festival in 2013. Varma's fiction feature Hulla was included in Avijit Ghosh's book 40 Retakes: Bollywood Classics You May Have Missed as an unsung classic of Mumbai cinema. His documentary I Am Offended was selected for the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) in 2023 as part of the "Focus: The Shape of Things to Come?" programme.

Other achievements

Varma developed the Impact Index, a cricket analytics system, on which he worked full-time from 2010 to 2017. His documentary Leaving Home: The Life & Music of Indian Ocean became the first documentary in Indian cinema history to receive a national theatrical release.

References

  1. https://iffr.com/en/person/jaideep-varma
  2. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3176269/
  3. https://www.thehindu.com/features/cinema/laugh-out-loud/article6040715.ece
  4. https://boingboing.net/2011/11/24/filmmaking-in-bollywoods-sha.html
  5. https://www.afaqs.com/news/advertising/9087_jwt-mumbai-adds-creative-talent-explores-script-writing-cell
  6. http://indialog.co.in/publications/Local.asp
  7. https://www.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/Home-and-away/article16119216.ece
  8. https://books.google.com/books/about/Local.html?id=Bq9lAAAAMAAJ
  9. https://m.rediff.com/movies/2008/sep/17jaideep.htm
  10. https://bookscouter.com/author/jaideep-varma
  11. https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/1057579.Local
  12. https://www.amazon.in/Local-Jaideep-Verma/dp/B007WT74FQ
  13. https://www.tribuneindia.com/2005/20050703/spectrum/book5.htm
  14. https://www.mouthshut.com/product-reviews/local-jaideep-verma-reviews-925076461
  15. https://www.thehindu.com/books/books-reviews/beyond-the-boundaries/article17752375.ece
  16. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/sunday-times/why-pataudi-was-almost-as-good-as-sobers-and-other-surprising-facts/articleshow/57101905.cms
  17. https://www.mansworldindia.com/lifestyle/sports/vital-statistics-impact-index-jaideep-varma-cricket-analytics-system
  18. https://www.amazon.in/Numbers-Do-Lie-Cricket-Stories/dp/9352643852
  19. https://www.dawn.com/news/1339936
  20. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1314274/
  21. https://jaideepvarma.medium.com/
  22. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1401130/
  23. https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/entertainment/music/sail-with-the-indian-ocean/articleshow/16149638.html
  24. https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2023/films/i-am-offended
  25. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swozBbWMzNQ
  26. https://highonscore.com/documentary-on-indian-ocean-wins-national-fil/
  27. https://www.scoopwhoop.com/entertainment/12-documentaries-on-india-to-watch-if-you-have-successfully-exhausted-your-quarantine-watch-list/
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