What makes a distributor buy a film? What elements does he look for before investing on a small budget movie? Previous year 2014 stood as a testimony that it is the content that finally decides the fate of a small budget film not the outer added attractions minus intriguing concept.
Even after 2014’s experience, if we find some distributor asking for outer gimmicks rather than the story, then one can understand how deep rooted are the basics of judging a film before investing on the film. An upcoming small movie ‘Pesarattu’ director Mahesh Kathi shared one such experience on his facebook wall.
Mahesh Kathi wrote:
I met with a senior gentleman who is in to film distribution for long. He heard of Pesarattu The Movie somewhere and liked the title so approached through a common friend.
I have shown him the theatrical promo. He seemed to have liked it and said, ” It looks rich.” I felt happy. And he continued by saying, “Hero and heroine are newcomers. Our people mostly don’t come to see newcomers. Do you have Jabardast actors for padding?” I said, “No Sir. But we have actually introduced more than 30 new actors through this film. All are good and some are from theatre background.” He paid least interest in the detail. His immediate question was, “Do you atleast have an item song?” I was bit startled and apologetically said, “Sir this is a family comedy and there is no scope for an item song.”
He looked at me with all the pity he could fill in his eyes and said, “How to take this film to theatres without all these? How to attract people?”. I don’t have answer to him. Do you?
