PRODUCER LEO VISION RAJKUMAR INTERVIEW

We have a background in sound recording and around 1500 films have used our services. When I decided to produce films, I wished to create content, which is different, interesting and not the regular fare. The vision of our company is to make films of quality which would make the audience say WOW.

I first listen to the story as a member of the audience and will check if it satisfies me as someone who would pay money and buy a ticket for the movie. If I am satisfied, I would then go for a complete script reading session and the script would decide the type of artists and the crew that would be roped in for the film. 

The type of actors and the technicians are dictated by the script and the story of the film. The choice of whether it would be a newcomer or a known face will be answered by the script’s need. There are no personal choices or set notions regarding the cast and crew choices for any film that we make. 

I had fears while making NKPK primarily because of its never-seen-before genre. But the audience’s feedback for NKPK has made me trust their tastes and verdict, and I had no such fears for Idharkuthane Aasaipattai Balakumara and also for the film that we are making now, Naalu Policeum Nalla Irundha Oorum.
 

Distributors judge the audience and they fear scripts which are 'out of the box' and think that they wouldn’t work at the box-office. But this mindset is also changing slowly thanks to the success of films such as NKPK, Pizza, Soodhu Kavvum and Neram. The release, packaging and marketing for a small film is always difficult but the success of small films of late is an encouraging sign.

In future, if a film of mine doesn’t turn out or perform as expected I would just take it in my stride. Some amount of analysis as to why the film didn’t work is needed, but too much analysis or post-mortem is also not good. 

The one change that I would like to see in the industry is proper spacing out of films. Nowadays a good film isn’t able to sustain into its second week as there are so many new releases jostling for space. This is too cramped and there is no breathing space for new releases to thrive. A normal movie goer allots only a certain portion of his monthly budget for seeing movies, and he can’t go and see every film that releases. Even if there are 10 good films running, he won’t have the budget to see all of them. One solution would be to increase theaters but proper spacing out of releases is a must.