Exclusive! Vikrant Rona co-producer Alankar Pandian bags five film deal with leading OTT platform

When Alankar Pandian decided to venture into Kannada cinema, after dabbling with the production and distribution of Tamil films, his debut as producer was the Ragini Dwivedi-starrer The Terrorist, which was completely killed at the box office by the big release of the week, The Villain, which had Shiva Rajkumar and Kiccha Sudeep in the lead. In a strange twist of fate, Alankar then went on to co-produce the Century Star’s Ayushman Bhava and is currently serving as co-producer on Sudeep’s upcoming release Vikrant Rona. “Terrorist was a washout because we could not get any theatres. But negotiating its OTT deal opened doors with the leading platforms and today, my banner has a good standing with pretty much every Indian OTT streamer,” says Alankar.

Alankar, who heads the Dubai-based Invenio Origin and its production wing Invenio Films India, has always preferred to stay out of the limelight, even while throwing in the might of his banner behind his movies and getting them the right satellite and digital partners, etc. With Vikrant Rona, though, he’s been a different man; proudly announcing his association with the much-anticipated fantasy-action-drama that is slated to release on July 28 and making sure that everyone takes note of his brand – Invenio Origin. 

As a co-producer, Alankar does not involve himself in the making of the film. So, what is it is that his brand brings to the table when a film team collaborates with him? “We involve ourselves completely in terms of saleability of the product. There are only 2-3 mediums of doing it – overseas distribution, which Invenio Origin is at the forefront of, and the satellite and digital rights. Today, we are digital partners with Zee, Amazon Prime Video and Sony and have good working relationships with all of them. Our job is to connect filmmakers with the OTT platforms and ensure that they get the right price for their films,” he explains. 

In fact, currently the brand is in talks with a leading OTT platform for a five-film deal, three of which will be in Kannada, one in Tamil and one in Malayalam. “We have to deliver five films in a year, for which we are in discussions with leading filmmakers in these industries. A formal announcement of this tie-up should happen soon,” he adds. 

When associating with filmmakers, what is it that Alankar is looking for? Star power? Production house? “Content is king; I normally insist on a brief narration, which gives me an idea of what to expect. Second comes the director and his capability of bringing his vision to the screen. Star power does not come into play at all. The filmmaker’s clarity about the subject and presentation is what matters. Third is the production house; it should have the wherewithal to produce a film efficiently. What happens often is that a large chunk of the money that is pumped into a film is syphoned off by people associated with the project, which, in turn, affects the quality of the product. I am looking at reliability, which will ensure that whatever money is given to them is put on the film,” he explains. 

At the moment, getting the right satellite and digital partners for Vikrant Rona in all the other languages, apart from Kannada (which has already been sold to Zee Kannada and Zee5), is top priority for Alankar. But he is also looking at stepping into the production of short films with his banner, for which he will begin with an official Youtube page and, if all things fall into place, maybe even an OTT platform. “The plan is to make about 100 short films of 45-minute to 1 hour duration, which we can market to existing platforms. Over time, we would like to have them on our own platform. Our association with Innovative Film Academy - which will churn out close to 200 students specialising in various verticals of filmmaking – will give us access to quality content,” he signs off.