Shihan Shoukath, one of the producers of this year’s first hit in Malayalam, the wrestling-based action drama Chatha Pacha, believes he learned a lot from being on the set on a daily basis. The producer, who has also directed several short films, is presently working on setting up a distribution wing for his production house, Reel World Entertainment, for the UAE and Singapore markets. But it’s his work on the shoot floor that led him to think about a people-first initiative that is novel for the Malayalam industry.
“I was inspired by Artists Equity, the American production company founded by actors and filmmakers Ben Affleck and Matt Damon,” Shihan tells The Hollywood Reporter India. Working behind the scenes, he got to spend a lot of time working with crew members, working to put food on the table. “But it’s not like they’re working any less than anyone else. They work for a daily wage, and when I heard about Artists Equity and what they were doing in the US, I felt we could attempt to put such a system in place in Malayalam cinema.”
In the case of Artists Equity, their latest production, The Rip, was announced with a special clause to incentivise crew members who worked on it. In what is now considered a landmark contract between the production company and Netflix, it was agreed that the OTT would pay a one-time bonus to the 1,200 people who worked on the film, “if the movie meets certain performance benchmarks within its first 90 days.”
Shihan says for his future productions, he plans on sharing a certain percentage of the film’s profit with the film’s below-the-line crew. “I don’t look at it as an idealistic proposal or as a form of charity. I feel it’s only fair for all of the crew members to be motivated by the film’s result and to feel a sense of ownership for the projects they’re working on.”
Although he understands the complexities of executing this plan, he believes this is the way to go for his production. “At times, the entire profit a film earns could be just about one per cent. There are also movies in which people do not get paid at all in the end. But this model has the potential to work in the longer run when every crew member stands to gain from controlling costs.”
The producer is onto the later stages of finalising the second film he will be producing, which he hopes will go on floors later this year. “While listening to narrations for this, we also stumbled upon another idea we believe in. If I listen to a narration and it sounds appealing, we will work with the writer to help them create a longer, 10-minute version of the pitch using our background in animation and AI. This will help the entire crew get a clearer vision for the proposed film. We too benefited from creating an animated version of Chatha Pacha when we were pitching it to Dharma Productions. This is the same animated pitch we used to pitch our film to Mythri Movies Makers and even Mammukka! (Mammootty had a cameo in the film).”
By bringing what’s on paper to screen, Shihan feels one can get a fair idea of the film’s look, mood, colours, camera positions and casting choices. “Even if we do not go on to produce the film, we’d be happy to share the rights of this pitch video to the writer,” he says. Apart from these, Reel World Entertainment also hopes to set up an AI/VFX Company and a film festival, apart from getting into web series in two years.
