A poster of Kaakka Muttai.
Filmmaker M Manikandan strongly believes that aspiring filmmakers should also develop the skill to pitch their films along with strong acumen over various crafts of cinema.
"If you have just five to seven minutes to convince a distributor to invest in your film, how would you do it? Here's where the art of pitching plays a vital role," Manikandan told IANS at the ongoing 17th Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival.
Manikandan is widely popular for his critically-acclaimed Tamil movie
Kaakka Muttai, which was his debut project as a director. He was in Mumbai to present his second project as a director -
Kutrame Thandanaia - in the Film Mart, an initiative aimed to bridge the gap between content creator and content platform. (Also Read:
Dhanush's Kaakka Muttai First Non-Kannada Film to go Tax Free in Karnataka)
"Pitching to a distributor is equivalent to meeting a star and narrating one line of your story. One can't afford to waste too much time. It also shows how streamlined someone's thoughts are about their film," he said.
The Mart featured international buyers like Lionsgate, Cinetic Media and Rapid Eye Movies.
Representing the studios were Yash Raj Films, Viacom18 and PVR Pictures. The producers present were Drishyam and Phantom Films; digital platforms such as HotStar, SonyLIV and HOOQ and mobile operators like Airtel and Jio were there too.
The list of other curated films includes
Peddlers, Monsoon Shootout, Haraamkhoor and
Thithi.