Telugu indie film ‘Gandhi Thata Chettu’ takes the crowd investment route

Padmavathi Malladi and Sesha Sindhu Rao’s ‘Gandhi Thata Chettu’ looks to raise investment through film-passionate NRIs who can invest in Cinema Stock Exchange’s pixel units

Director Padmavathi Malladi in the pitch video of ‘Gandhi Thata Chettu’

Padmavathi Malladi was stoked when a friend narrated what she describes as a “love story between a man and a tree.” Padmavathi, who was part of the writing teams of Telugu films Manamantha and Mahanati, developed a fictional story Gandhi Thatha Chettu inspired by what she had heard. She turned the protagonist into a 15-year-old girl from Nizamabad, Telangana, who fights for a green cause following Gandhian principles she learnt from her grandfather. 

Padmavathi’s friend and filmmaker Sesha Sindhu Rao stepped in as the producer and the film is in its pre-production stage. During a visit to Nizamabad, Padmavathi chanced upon a large tree on a winding road and decided to set the film in its vicinity. The story also required a sugarcane factory set-up. Serendipitously, she also found an old sugarcane factory in the area. 

Both Sesha Sindhu and Padmavathi preferred an indie film approach to stay true to the story and not have any stars on board. 

So far, the team has auditioned nearly 200 candidates for the protagonist’s character and has shortlisted a few names. “We want to make a film that looks real and authentic, say, like Care of Kancharapalem,” Padmavathi adds. Rather than opting for a traditional method of raising funds through film financiers, the team has opted for crowd investing through Cinema Stock Exchange (cinemastockexchange.com). 

How does it work?

Cinema Stock Exchange (CSE) was founded by US-based Sandeep Kumar Chodapaneedi, a mechanical engineer who worked in the corporate sector and over the years, observed the passion for Telugu cinema among the NRIs. CSE began in December 2019 as an entrepreneurial venture to connect film-passionate investors and filmmakers.

Sandeep explains that in CSE, movie currency is sold in pixel units. The estimated budget for Gandhi Thata Chettu is ₹85 lakh and anyone can buy a pixel worth $50, or more. He asserts that CSE is not a crowd-funding platform but a crowd-investment platform that allows room for sharing of profits with investors: “In the regular method of investing, financiers charge hefty interest rates that become a burden for filmmakers. In CSE, we have a service charge of 3% of the total budget and this does not increase even if there are unexpected delays in the making or release of the film.”

The film is set in Nizamabad in the vicinity of a lone tree on a winding path | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

The target date for raising funds for Gandhi Thata Chettu on CSE is June 1, 2022. So far, $4700 of the required $114,000 have been raised. “Once the film is ready and sold to a digital platform, the filmmakers recover the initial investment and some of the profits are shared with everyone who invested. In the near future, we want to enable a trading mechanism where a buyer of a pixel can sell it to other potential investors. This is subject to the concerned film team approving of it.”

In the event of being unable to raise sufficient funds for a film, the investment received till that point is returned to the investors.

Though CSE was formed in late 2019, Sandeep states that during the pandemic, it became difficult to raise funds for filmmaking, with health concerns overruling other investments. CSE had tried to raise funds for another film titled Hamsaanandini, but it did not materialise.

With Gandhi Thata Chettu, both CSE and the filmmakers are hopeful. Padmavathi also informs that most of the crew are women. “My determination to make this film grew stronger during a conversation with my niece; I realised that there aren’t enough movies we can watch with children — movies from which they can take back a few thoughts.”