When filmmaker Sandeep A Varma shot his first advertising campaign many years ago, he was surprised when the clients were overjoyed that he was only over-budget by some 10 per cent. “There were a lot of variable costs, especially when it came to renting equipment and hiring crew in different parts of the country. When I got into feature filmmaking, I thought big film studios would more organised, but it was the same story even there,” recalls the veteran filmmaker, who has directed The Virgins and the award-winning Manjunath.
“The thing is that whether it’s for small ad campaigns or big budget films, producers almost universally rely on locals in various cities to be their location managers, and these guys are essentially freelancers who will source everything from cameras to spot boys, and the costs escalate with every commission added,” says Varma
When he happened to run into his former BITS Pilani college-mate Rajesh Butta, now a serial entrepreneur and tech guru, Varma mentioned the issue to the Butta, who was on the look-out for a new venture.And so, Filmboard was developed by Varma and Butta in 2017, using the former’s knowledge of the Indian ad and film industry and the latter’s tech entrepreneurship. The platform enables production houses to simplify the tasks of arranging everything from talent, crew, services and locations, covered under their 180 categories and 10000+ verified service providers pan India transacting at transparent pricing.
Sandeep, being in the entertainment industry for over two decades, understands all the major and minor pain points of the industry like over budgeting, variable costing, and lack of resources to locations, opacity of process and equipment arrangement. To address the same, Rajesh and he built this comprehensive B2B marketplace, which addresses all the challenges faced while producing good quality content.
“If you want any kind of creative project shot, whether it’s a campaign or show or film, you can log on to Filmboard, and that will give you a list of potential casts, crews, equipment and more, in cities across India,” explains Varma.
Meanwhile, with much of the industry still facing delays in shoots and location availability, Filmboard has come out with a Covid Smart Plan, which is part of its effort to be the lead in providing solutions to any problem the industry may be facing. While it offers a 360° solution to any producer looking to re-start her/his shoots, Filmboard is also open to simply coming in as a Covid inspection team supported by its app, as the regular Line Producer conducts the shoot.
The brand has already tied up with a couple of producers and is speaking to top OTT platforms and studios for the same. “There is nothing quite like this in the world and we recently got some backing from US investors to adopt this platform for US and European markets, which are far more developed in terms of values and systems,” shared Varma, concluding, “We have already worked with some Indian players here, and once things start to settle down and travel and shootings resume, we will be taking the system abroad.”
COVID CHECK
While Filmboard offers a 360° solution to any producer looking to re-start their shoots, it is open to simply coming in as a Covid inspection team supported by its app, as the regular Line Producer conducts the shoot