Kolkata, Jan 12: Children’s film will get a major boost as the Children’s Film Society of India (CFSI) is tying up with big production houses to co-produce around five-six films, featuring Bollywood stars, this year.
“We have decided that this year we will go for co-productions in a big way to optimise the cost of production and enhance profitability. We know what the children want in their films and private producers know how to market it so it is a win-win situation for all,” CFSI CEO Dr Shravan Kumar has said.
The autonomous body under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, which has made recent films like “Gattu”, “Pappu Ki Pugdundi” and “Goopi Gawaiya Bagha Bajaiya”, has set aside a budget of Rs 10 crore to make 5-6 such co-productions this year.
“We are looking for good stories which the children will enjoy watching. The lead character of the film will obviously be a child actor but we will have a big face playing an important role in the films,” Kumar said.
Under the co-productions, the children’s film society and the private producers will spend equal money and share revenue generated from the commercial release of the film.
Their script selection committee has already shortlisted seven such proposals so far from mainstream film production houses.
While the making of the film will be entirely in the hands of the producer CFSI will be involved in selecting and fine tuning scripts and monitoring the production and post-production process.
CFSI is looking for original and humane stories from different parts of the country which should connect with kids. To make the entire submission process hassle-free, they have allowed producers to submit proposals online through their website.
“Getting audience for any non-mainstream film is a challenge and we are trying to overcome it by leveraging the marketing and distribution skills of the mainstream studios,” Kumar said.
To provide healthy and wholesome entertainment for children, CFSI has already produced close to 250 features, shorts, animations in 15 languages.
The producers will also be able to use the vast network of thousands of schools all over the country with whom the film body has been working over the years.
“We show free films to over 20 lakh kids but now we want to convert it into a demand-driven model where children will ask us to show films. We will have both paid and free contents,” he said adding that through their recently launched mobile app requests for film screenings can be made.
CFSI is tying up with multiplex chains so that such paid screenings can be made available according to the demand during lean show timings.
They have already converted their entire library into the digital format and uploaded it on their YouTube channel besides making it available on DVDs.
To enrich its library, CFSI has also started acquiring best films from different countries shown at the ‘Golden Elephant festival’ and dubbing it into regional languages.
This is also helping them generate revenue through sales, the CEO said.
