VISUAL CONTENT VIRTUOSO

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER AND COOWNER OF ADVERTISING AND PRODUCTION COMPANY JONAS & CO IN HOLLYWOOD, HEMA MULCHANDANI GIVES TINA THAKRAR THE LOWDOWN ON HOW TO WEAVE THROUGH THE WEB OF VIDEO CONTENT

- TINA THAKRAR

It was a surprisingly pleasant weekend in March in Mumbai, when I was scrolling through the list of long-form and short-form content on the official website of LA-based advertising and production company, Jonas & Co. I’m hooked onto the first thing I see - a special entitled Spongebob’s Birthday Blowout, and its fun juxtaposition of reality and animation. It distracts me from all the research I’m supposed to be doing on company co-founder Hema Mulchandani, until I find the Emmy award-winning production for Nick Jr. called Girls in Charge and an Emmy-nominated video project for The Malala Fund. I know then that this is no ordinary company, and Hema is no ordinary producer.

Throughout our chat, Hema only reinforces this for me. “We are both the smallest and the most global company you will ever talk to,” she explains, about the company she co-owns with creative director Jonas Morganstein. From a few small offices in Hollywood’s Sunset Boulevard (with enviable views of the hills), Jonas & Co works with some of the best character animators, liquid dynamics artists, and rotoscope teams in as far as Columbia, Spain, Indonesia, Russia and India, in combination with talented production and edit staff, to create content that doesn’t compromise. This matches the scope of their work too - it’s beautifully entertaining, transcends borders and is said to be the best of the best.