HYDERABAD: Chandra Pemmaraju, who is currently finishing up the post production of his latest venture, feature film — Love, Lies and Seeta (LLS), was at ISB to talk about various aspects of filmmaking and to also introduce his movie to part of his target audience, the young Indian crowd. The mid-30-year-old film maker, who has been in New York for the past seven years, made the jump four years ago when he made the short films — May Beetle and Kissing Miss Jones, both of which won the first time film-maker various accolades that helped him move towards his feature film, LLS. Addressing the management students at ISB, Pemmaraju explained the business aspect of film making, various stages to a movie and the technicalities that go into getting the best of the project. LLS which took the nouveau director a year and a half to make, is a story about the friendship of three men who fall for the same beautiful woman. The love triangle envelops the characters and their friends, bringing out a humorous story that is realistically set during the New York summer, giving the city's urban-natural beauty an important supporting character. Talking about LLS, Pemmaraju shares, "The movie was shot in 28 days on 50 locations with a crew of about 80 people. For a feature film of this capacity, we managed to make the film on almost one-tenth of the normal average budget. That was our unique selling proposition when we went looking for funding." Pemmaraju systematically broke down his project into five stages — the idea, finding funds, pre-production, production and post-production. After the initial stage of production, Pemmaraju sought funding for post-production and again for promotion. "Multiple rounds of funding is important to keep the process moving. If I had failed to come up with the money, we would've got stuck during post-production," says Pemmaraju.So how did funding the project work? "My previous two productions thankfully did well and the good word spread. But the initial capital came mostly from friends and acquaitances. As the movie progressed, more people were willing to contribute." For somebody from the corporate world, being logistical is second nature. Pemmaraju clearly weighed out his project before getting started. He shares, "I came from a corporate background. So networking came naturally to me. Facebook also helped in promoting my work. But at the end of the day, it's how you package and promote yourself. Our USP of being a low-budget project really worked for us. You make the best of what you have. Thus, my apartment became our work station. We set up a studio in my living room and that's where most of the editing was done."Part of the essence of LLS is its music. The movie doesn't have a particular music director. Instead Pemmaraju collaborated with a whole range of artists to come up with its soundtrack. Wild beats and Robopop mainly featured, while there were random artists like a guitarist that Pemmaraju came across in the subway one day. "I needed a guy to play the guitar in the background as a cast member in one of my scenes. I found this guy on the subway, asked him if he's like to act and also play for that one scene and he agreed." The former Deloitte employee who is also a painter by hobby, displays his passion for his first love when talking about his film making. "I always knew I would take up film making at some point. So it wasn't really taking a risk. Everyday you have to make decisions and you live with it. If you believe in those choices, that's enough."Love, Lies and Seeta will be ready for its début with film festivals in about a month's time.
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