Film maker Sandeep Mohan kicks off urban travelling cinema with his film Hola Venky , an Indo-Mexican ‘dramedy’. In cafes, libraries, bars, homes and ad agencies, people watch his uncensored film without any help of studios, distributors, theatres, or middlemen. The audience can pay as they wish for the screening. After Gurgoan, Pune, Kochi, and Bangalore, he stops at Coimbatore. From here he will go to Pondicherry, Chennai and Mumbai. “I travel light. My film is in my laptop and I carry the speakers. All I need is a white wall or a screen to project my film,” he says as he oversees the arrangement at Kites Café, the screening venue in Coimbatore.
At Gurgaon, Sandeep’s audience watched the film at an organic food farming factory amidst the sights and smells of organic food. At another instance, he screened the film in the lobby of a hotel, taking the guests by surprise.
He is confident that this innovative marketing model will work for indie film makers. “Big guys won’t support us. And, there are no art houses or theatres to have a theatrical release. Private screening is the way to go. We have to innovate, explore new marketing avenues and build our audience base,” he says.
The model also helps film makers make a personal connect with the audience, says S. Kamala Kannan, another independent film maker. “The performing arts, be it cinema, bommalaatam or circus started with the concept of touring talkies which largely catered to the rural audience. The urban travelling cinema experiment takes you back to the roots. As long as there is a possibility to recover your investments, creators are willing to explore new spaces in distribution and marketing. Malayalam film maker John Abraham tired this much earlier on. It’s a positive step forward as there are no limitations.”
Kamala Kannan says this model helps small budget films make money. “In a theatrical release, the film makers get only a 50 per cent share of the profit from ticket sales. A film like Ship of Thesues was restricted to release only in big metros. It came to Chennai only after people created a Facebook page which received over 10,000 likes. Later, Coimbatore followed the same model. So many new avenues are opening up to encourage offbeat films.”
Sandeep promotes his film aggressively on the social media too. “I create a Facebook page and make friends. My audience is educated who understand middle-class sensibilities. At the screening, I have a Q&A immediately after the film is over and get their feedback. I give the power to my audience, who also enjoy the experience of meeting the film maker,” he says.
He describes Hola Venky as the journey of a techie from ‘his groin to his heart’. It was made with a three-member crew on a tight budget of Rs. 10 lakhs. “My techie friends abroad chipped in Rs. 5 lakh and the rest of the money came from crowd funding. I have kept aside five months for travelling and taking my cinema to my audience. The donation-based payment model has helped me recover my investment partly. I cut down all the expenses. I don’t take a flight; instead travel by trains and buses. I will use a very minimal amount from the money I generate from the Coimbatore screening to book a bus ticket to Pondicherry,” he says.
A number of upcoming film makers encourage the concept. Assistant director Siddarth Balachandran says it’s an opportunity to get the feedback from serious cinema lovers. “People who turn up here are the ones who follow cinema closely. Their feedback matters. It’s a novel concept for film makers doing alternative cinema.”
Prasanna Balachandran, who runs Mugam Publications, attends such screenings to support the Indie film movement. “A private screening creates an unrestricted space at a time when theatre owners have a monopoly over everything,” he says.
Sandeep says all that matters is a good script. “Film makers are aware of a cinema beyond regional films and Bollywood. Film clubs and YouTube expose youngsters to world cinema. All I want to tell them is keep your budgets low and stay innovative. At the end of the day, you are a story-teller. Taking it to the audience the way you want to gives you total creative control and helps you stay independent.”
More on Hola Venky
- Sandeep hired theatres in San Jose and San Francisco and screened the 86-minute film which helped him make a small profit. The film was made Guerrilla style, was shot in 22 days in the U.S. and three days in Mumbai.
- It featured just two actors Roger Narayan and Sonia Balcazar and the rest of the cast comprises his friends. In the film, a divorced middle-class techie Matunga lands in the U.S. A week before his second marriage, an incident makes him question concepts of masculinity.
- Sandeep Mohan’s first film Love, wrinkle free is an anti-ageing comedy about obsession with looking good.
- He worked as a copy writer, assisted Sanjay Leela Bhansali in his film Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam , before becoming a full-time writer and film maker.
- Actor Roger Narayan, who plays the lead in Hola Venky is based out of Los Angeles. He has done a whole bunch of TV and has been associated with films such as Happy Feet , Mission Impossible IV. At the screening, I have a Q&A immediately after the film is over and get their feedback. I give the power to my audience, who also enjoy the experience of meeting the film maker.
