September 13, 2014: Maverick film director Ram Gopal Varma appears to be hungry for experimentation has he is trying his hands on a new distribution model for his most recent Telugu movie called Anukshanam that will be releasing today.
The movie is based on the hunt for a serial killer and it has been produced by 24 Frames Factory that is Manchu Vishnu’s home production unit. He also plays a policeman in the film. It also stars Revathi and it is the second Varma-Vishnu collaboration following the recent release Rowdy.
The budget of the movie Anukshanam is around Rs 8 crore excluding the fees of Varma and Vishnu. The producers have auctioned the theatre rights for this movie in certain centers rather than the traditional model followed to sell the rights. The revolutionary aspect in this process is claiming it online and letting the first timers to place bids. The industry analysts suggest that this method will be an alternative platform for the small and medium budget films to reach a wider audience.
This is a transparent process wherein bidders can see the actual number of people bidding and also the highest bid value. To avoid fraudulent bids, the bidder will have to pay 10 percent of the actual bid value as the minimum deposit.
For this movie, the bids range from Rs 20,000 for single screen theatres to Rs 10 lakh for multiplexes. Interestingly, the movie will be distributed even in theatres that did not receive any bid as well.
However, there are contradictions as well and once of it has come from the founder of Idlebrain.com and a movie critic Jeevi. He claims that the method of auctioning will help the production houses to generate more money. And that this model appears to eliminate the middlemen.
Also, Thammareddy Bharadwaj, a noted Telugu film director and producer has mentioned that this process may not work that effectively for the first time and lesser known directors and actors. Moreover, it is claimed that letting people to bid for a movie blindly would not be that viable.
