Feature film that cost just Rs 25,000

Bilahari would not have discovered an entire world dwelling within the world of cinema if not for the popular Cinema Paradiso Club. Today after being a part of and helming various other projects, Bilahari is ecstatic about his new movie — Porattam. His directorial, it is being applauded for its shoestring budget of about Rs 25,000. Bilahari, who also heads a production company, Plan B Infotainments, sheds light on the story behind Porattam.

But first he talks about himself “My cinematographer Sreeraj Raveendran and I are two people whose Plan A did not work out, hence we decided to name our company Plan B,” he laughs. 

“We were working on one major movie project and that was getting delayed. That is when I came across the plan to shoot a movie in a single location. I zeroed in on a current subject — an issue that is relevant to us now. So, the story was based on the issues women face. It was at the same time that my cinematographer bought a new camera. We were confident that with that camera we could shoot at our leisure and the fact that the end result could be projected in a 4k resolution theatre gave us that extra confidence.” 

He elaborates further and says, “The main plan was to cut artificial light. When shooting began, the location stretch expanded and the project started developing. There was no script as such. We improvised  it on location.”  

Bilahari and crew wrapped up the shoot in 15 days. When quizzed about how he managed to cut down budget he says “I never planned to restrict the budget to Rs 25,000, but we always had this in mind that our movie had to be simple and should not go overboard with its budget in anyway. We really had no idea how and where could we curb it. Moreover, thanks to my crew. When I told them that I have a very small budget in mind, no one had any problem. Even when I was telling the story to our lead actor Shalin Zoya I made it clear about budget and her remuneration or rather lack of it. I told her that she might not even get food on time. Despite all these, her response was ‘When shall we begin?’.

Bilahari and crew is currently on possible release dates and keeping his options open for film festivals.