Bombay exhibitor Jayendra Popat passed away suddenly this afternoon (5th October). The exact cause of his death is not known. He was hospitalised around 12 noon and breathed his last around 3 p.m. He was 65 years old.
Popatbhai, as he used to be referred to in film distribution and exhibition circles, was an extremely hardworking man. That’s how he rose from being a publicity godown keeper at N.N. Sippy’s distribution firm, Janata Film Distributors, to assistant distribution manager in the same firm. He then went independent and started to do programming for some suburban single-screen cinemas and a multiplex. Popatbhai had a very amiable nature and made friends easily.
Without being formally associated with Film Information, Popatbhai was like an integral part of the Information family as he used to share a lot of news of distribution and exhibition trade in general and Naaz cinema, which houses many distribution and exhibition offices, in particular. It would not be wrong to say that he had a nose for news.