Date:25/09/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/09/25/stories/2008092555540300.htm

Kerala - Kozhikode

Plan to fund low-budget films

Staff Reporter

Film exhibitors’ forum to collect funds from release centres

KOZHIKODE: The Kerala Film Exhibitors Federation (KFEF) has come up with a new plan to make more viable Malayalam films.

At a press meet here on Wednesday, KFEF president M. Mohammed Ansar said that the federation would help established producers make 10 films a year by collecting funds from cinemas across the State. “There are 45 release centres in the State and we plan to collect Rs.2 lakh from each of them,” he explained. “We will thus be able to generate Rs.90 lakh, which we will give producers who can make films at less than Rs.1.5 crore. We will meet on October 4 to discuss this further.”

For more films

Mr. Ansar said that the new plan was an effort to increase the number of Malayalam films. “Fewer films are being made now because the production cost has gone up,” he said. He also expressed the KFEF’s concerns about the recent increase in releasing centres for Malayalam films. “We incur huge losses when producers release a new film in neighbouring centres after collecting money from us,” he said.