"This is a feature length film that does not look forward to traditional producers neither to traditional distributors but to your support and contribution. The film will be made by whatever you donate. The minimum amount is only one rupee but of course you can contribute more if you feel generous. You can also make also make absolutely no contribution and wait for the film to release to watch it for free. But you know, you better contribute some amount in order to make sure that the film gets made."
One Rupee Film is actually a 90-minute long docu-diction about independent film-making in India. The story goes something like this that a group of youngsters get involved with film-making in a manner theatre and Little Magazines are formed, just for the sake of making films. The film starts at a point where they are going through some kind of crisis, one, is a crisis of identity since they have hardly ever seen the large equipment essential for making films; secondly an economic crisis, the minimum cost of making a film. Both these are dependent on each other, that is, if one is resolved, the other will resolve on its own. Under such circumstances, one of them decide to stop despairing and vows to make a full-length feature film at any cost.
Here, the journey begins, from prospective financiers to the concept of films made outside the industry by common people. Each interaction gives form to imagination on the young man's part, thus creating the fiction segments about how he would portray these interactions in his own film. But his own film isn't happening, because he doesn't have the funds. Yet he witnesses films made in Mumbai, worth 3 crores or 10 crores or even more are getting tagged 'independent'. He witnesses victory marches for apolitical films at a time the country is in the grip of an intraneous war. All that he sees have inwardly began to make him restless, unstable, impatient. He vows to make his film happen, even if it means saving every one rupee he gets, little by little.
Thus arise the other issues such as crowd-funding. It had been happening before, not just in India, but even in Bengal itself. Now, the difference is that if we leave out the elders whose contributions we still acknowledge, the entire exercise becomes a question of market resources. But that's not how we look at it. We see it like our neighborhood club would collect funds from every household for a theatre festival.
But yeah, if someone contributes more than twenty grand, he/she would get a percentage of the sales, if we ever sell the rights abroad. As a matter of fact, we doubt if anyone will donate such a huge amount, and, we also doubt if anyone would buy the rights at all, but you never know what might happen! Inside India, we will not sell distribution rights at any cost, due to other reasons. We are maintaining a database of the donors and contributors which we think will come of use to any seriously independent minded film-maker in the future. We are also having talks with people from other provinces so that the entire project is a national one. All donors/contributors will get to watch the film, either by DVD or by direct-download-links, depending on which slab they contributed in. Also, there might be a few DVD sales, but non-exclusive.
But yeah, if someone contributes more than twenty grand, he/she would get a percentage of the sales, if we ever sell the rights abroad. As a matter of fact, we doubt if anyone will donate such a huge amount, and, we also doubt if anyone would buy the rights at all, but you never know what might happen! Inside India, we will not sell distribution rights at any cost, due to other reasons. We are maintaining a database of the donors and contributors which we think will come of use to any seriously independent minded film-maker in the future. We are also having talks with people from other provinces so that the entire project is a national one. All donors/contributors will get to watch the film, either by DVD or by direct-download-links, depending on which slab they contributed in. Also, there might be a few DVD sales, but non-exclusive.
