Debut director Challa Srikanth seeks crowd funding for his indie film on friendship and black magic.

Crowd funding may be a buzzword among indie filmmakers in the Hindi film industry, but a rarity in Telugu. Debutant director Challa Srikanth is taking the crowd funding route to make his film, The Book. Srikanth has earlier co-written Chandamama Kathalu, worked as production designer for Case no. 666 and helped in the pre-production stage of Minugurulu. “I also made a short film called Song of Life, focusing on romance and friendship in college days,” says Srikanth.

The Book is a story of friends caught in the grip of black magic, a tale of love, lust and power. Srikanth has uploaded half of the script online for people to read and then pool in money for the film. “My friend Rohit Mishra, an NIT alumnus from Jaipur, wrote the first draft and I worked on the second,” says Srikanth, who graduated from the Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad. “Even when I joined college, I knew I’d someday turn to filmmaking,” he says.

A story of friends and black magic maybe a path less explored in Telugu cinema but Srikanth is hopeful it will find takers. “Look at the Kannada film industry. Their films aren’t great to speak of. But suddenly, there was the much-acclaimed Lucia which was a game changer. Our industry is way better and I am sure people will like the script and donate,” he says.

Srikanth is looking at a budget of Rs. 60 lakh, of which Rs. 40 lakh will be used for making the film and the remaining for promotions. “The English script is in place, I will be working on writing it in Telugu and we plan to shoot by February 2015,” he says.

He doesn’t feel insecure for making half his script available in the public domain. “The next half holds the crux of the story, so I am sure no one can steal my idea. I haven’t revealed much,” he says.

The Book is a story inspired by Nahush ka Patan by Maithili Sharan Gupt. The film will be shot by cinematographer G. Kamalakar, who has worked on documentaries and assisted in Anukokunda Oka Roju, Shock and Vikramarkudu. Lavanya Krishna, who worked on the recent film Ulavacharu Biryani, will edit the film.

For more details of the crowd funded film, visit www.thebookmoviezone.com

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus / by Sangeetha Devi Dundoo / Hyderabad – August 11th, 2014