All You Need to Know About Filmboard Movies
Filmboard is a pioneering B2B filmmaking marketplace where producers/ line producers/ filmmakers can book instantly any location, service, crew or talent that they may need to make any audio-visual product based in India. Filmboard offers both a DIY model (where producers can book individual services themselves) or a turn-key model where Filmboard organizes a project for a producer basis a transparent planning model.
Filmboard is in the Media and Entertainment industry with a focus on Digital Video, Films, TV, Music and VFX/Animation. It offers services to small and large production houses as well as producers/filmmakers. The total available market (34.9 K+ Cr) includes Films (all languages), Digital Videos, TV, Music, Ads & VFX/Animation. The portal caters to sellers ranging from non-glam entities like equipment suppliers, location providers, service providers to crew and talent.
Currently, they are based in Mumbai, addressing the Mumbai market but are also in the process of onboarding service providers PAN India. They already have shoot locations from Uttaranchal, Delhi, Pune, and Sikkim listed on the portal, and the location listings will continue to increase rapidly. Filmboard has raised INR 1.4 CR till date and is now looking to raise USD 1Million (INR 7 Cr).
What makes Filmboard Movies different from other similar ventures?
Filmboard Movies aims to provide transparent and innovative services to all its users. Their USP is:
1.Attitude: It is genuinely disruptive in both being transparent and innovative. The industry, as described, has a lack of transparency as one of its ills. Filmboard changes all that and brings the world-class value of transparency into the mix. The industry has made films in the same archaic way for decades. Filmboard has come up with the first series of its ongoing innovations in the following ways:
- Actors’ audition call outs: Often casting directors can not reach the right actor even though they are available. Similarly, suitable casting choices don’t get to the right auditions in time. Filmboard Actors’ app narrows this gap with GPS based audition call-outs where profiles of actors are pre-matched with the audition requirements. All it needs now is for the actor and casting director to do the virtual handshake to close the audition loop. Next in line in this? – Virtual, remote auditions.
- Auctioning service provider facilities: There is excess inventory very often on the service provider side. For example, editing rooms lying vacant. Expensive cameras unused for weeks. Filmboard’s unique innovative feature will help these facilities to be available at discounted rates, benefitting both the buyer and seller side of the marketplace.
- Bid and buy projects/ services: Why should an IP holder (producer) not be able to make people bid for an upcoming project? Why should the opportunity be limited to the few people in his own network? The bid and buy feature empowers the producer to expand his reach and helps a much larger section of players who may be genuinely good but may suffer from a lack of network, to bid for projects.
With this innovation, Filmboard further pushes its initial promise of democratization.
- Size: The way the industry has traditionally functioned, it is network-driven and with high entry barriers. Filmboard has managed to penetrate internal networks and has got more than 6500 service providers and more than 150 producers willing to transact. L&K Saatchi & Saatchi, one of the top 10 advertising agencies in India has also joined this list.
In the next two years, this figure is likely to be 10 times higher. Even the largest individual line producer in India will pale in comparison, not having more than 500-600 in his direct network.
Having crossed over the high entry barriers, Filmboard is now poised to capture a large market share in the Line Production market.
Filmboard has line produced many projects like ‘Kahanibaaz’, ‘The Asha Verdict’, IIM Jammu, the promotional video for Rebel Foods, animation videos for SNEHA NGO and many more.
- Buyer focused: Filmboard focuses on the top of the value chain: the producer. Most other startups in entertainment are focused on talent, which is a (low value) seller category. Filmboard believes that if the problem of the producer is solved, everything else will ensue.
People Behind the idea of Filmboard
Filmboard has two founders- Rajesh Butta and Sandeep Varma.
Rajesh Butta is an MMS graduate from BITS Pilani from the 86-90 batch. A serial entrepreneur with over 25 years of industry exposure and has been part of various startups, bought and sold ventures, primarily in the IT sector, and been part of all aspects of IT be it software, hardware, education, e-learning, portal, and mobile development.
He conceived and executed the much prestigious SMS based train ticket booking solution for the Indian Railway. He has also run a software development company focused on creating innovative mobile solutions for remote monitoring of people and field activities.
Sandeep Varma is a graduate from BITS Pilani (B.Tech), MBA – FMS University of Delhi. He has rich corporate experience having worked with Unilever, ITC Ltd., and Mudra Communications. He has run a full-fledged Advertising agency for more than 15 years.
Additionally, he is an awarded Filmmaker. He has written, directed and co-produced ‘Manjunath’ along with Viacom18 Motion Pictures, NFDC & ICOMO in 2014. Manjunath won the prestigious Ramnath Goenka Award for Cinematic Excellence and was lauded at various international festivals. Sandeep has won the Best Screenplay award for feature film “Manjunath”. He was nominated for the Best Debut Director award.
Sandeep has gone international with his latest film ‘The Disguise’ shot in the UK which has won acclaim across world film festivals and is on the academic council of various media courses.
The way ahead
In 2 years, Filmboard will expand all India and will be on-boarding all relevant players operating in the industry and gain relevant market share. In the coming 5-years, they are planning to:
- Have operations in the overseas market, offering India to the world. They are confident that Filmboard will be the main window for overseas projects to flow into
- Be the main entry point for all aspirants from talent, crew, services as well as inflow of capital into the industry. This means the model will extend from B2B to B2C.
