HYDERABAD: Every weekend a new film pops up in multiplexes around us. A few manage to attract the audience, whereas, the other few fail to do so. James McAvoy once said, “Filmmaking is a miracle of collaboration.” Say collaboration of varied elements that come together to make a successful film with every element bringing its own challenges.
For Raja Subash Chandra, founder of Mr Productions, his journey to become a filmmaker started much before he realised that he was onto it. “We had to participate in a competition that was being conducted at Gitam University.” While it was just an initial attempt to be able to participate in a competition, he liked it so much so that he decided to make his career in films, where his friend Dheeraj accompanied him though his journey. “I started with making short films, but as we were not well established then, we would find it difficult to gather female cast for our film,” he says.
Though in the due course Subash also managed to bag a corporate job for himself, he quit it to hone his skills by joining LV Prasad Film & TV Academy, Chennai. “We recently made our 100th short film and soon we will be making a feature film,” he adds.
For Abhiraj Nair, whose feature film Love Today releases this December, editing his work was challenging. He eventually learnt editing while working with his fellow filmmakers. “The love for making films kept me going all through,” Abhiraj says, who had to discontinue a few of his projects due to insufficient funds.
Making one realise that marketing the film also plays an important role in finding success, Raghu Bellamkonda, who recently released his small budget film Malli Raadoi Life feels, “Many small budget films even fail to get screened as the bigger films are prioritised. The excuses we get is that the theatre authorities won’t be able to make enough profit,” he says. Giving an example of the struggle he had to face to release his film Malli Raadoi Life, he confesses, “I tried for 18 screens in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, but I could only get three screens. Hopefully, I will be releasing my film in a few more theaters this week.”
Though it is obvious that people would choose to watch a big banner film rather then a low budget, Raghu also has a solution to this problem. “He says that a newcomer’s movie should be charged less than a big banner and the director or anyone representing the film should be allowed to fix the ticket price.”
While the newcomers are trying to figure their way out to be a successful filmmaker, Vasuki Belavadi, who teaches Video Production at University of Hyderabad, gives out a few pointers that a filmmaker should consider:
Understand the medium: Television, films and internet work differently. One has keep the medium for which they are making film in mind.
Understand the craft: Just by buying a camera, one can’t say that he is a filmmaker. He has to learn the craft in detail to be able to make a movie. Experimenting with the craft is best way to perfect the art.
Don’t imitate others: By imitating others, one will end up making film like them. He has to work it out his way.
Understand how to tell a story: The story should be capable enough of involving the audience. It should have a good start and the story should be well presented.