Times when big budget, foreign locations and global premiers dominate the filmmaking scenario, director PP Sudevan has decided to make a crowd-funded project.
The award winning filmmaker, who made history by making a movie in small budget of Rs 7 lakh and went on to win the the best film state award, is pinning his hope on movie buffs and well-wishers around the world for their contributions for his untitled project.
Sudevan's low-budget movie "Crime No: 89," which was shot in seven days with his own villagers as actors, garnered a handful of awards, including the best film in the Kerala's State Film Awards in 2013.
Also a maker of four short films, Sudevan said his next, a portmanteau movie, would be a collection of five short films and the shooting of one of them is already over.
A total of Rs 15 lakh is expected as the total budget for the new project, he said.
"As part of the fund collection, we have sent the DVDs of our previous movies, including "Crime No: 89" to film societies and A-grade libraries across the state," Sudevan told PTI.
"We hope that the movies will be screened there and we will get small contributions in that way," he said.
The 41-year-old filmmaker said that around Rs 6 lakh, collected through public screening of the previous films and from the prize money of the awards they received, was already earmarked for the making of the new movie.
Like his other films, his native village Peringode in Palakkad district would be the location of the new movie as well.
"The actors will also be common people from my village.
The shooting of one of the five short films is over and the preparation is on for the second one."
"We are planning to complete the shoot of the rest of the three by this December," he said.
On the story line of the film, he said it is an attempt to interpret the life and its totality through different stories and occasions.
"We hope that we can release the movie by next year, if we can raise enough funds," the director added.