Pay-per-view is the model of the future, says MovieSaints CEO Priyadarshi Rishiraj

The streaming service MovieSaints was born in 2015 when a storyteller felt the need for an exclusive platform for independent filmmakers.

Priyadarshi Rishiraj, founder and chief executive officer of MovieSaints, channelized his personal crisis to find a solution to a problem that many had run into for long.

Since its inception, MovieSaints has been coming up with pioneering ideas fit not only for indie films, but also for the entire film distribution system.

Last year, as the COVID-19 pandemic struck and shut down much of the world, some film festivals were called off while others experimented with virtual events. The New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF), which held a hybrid event, teamed up with MovieSaints to make its screenings available to a global audience. This year again, the NYIFF, which ends today, has partnered with MovieSaints to stream its films for audiences.

In an interview with Cinestaan.com, Priyadarshi Rishiraj discussed how some distribution ideas envisaged by him a few years ago began making more sense during the pandemic and working out for festivals as well. Excerpts:

Tell us your inspiring story of founding MovieSaints.

It’s a longish story, but I will try to make it as concise as possible. I was born in Siliguri [in northern West Bengal] and moved to Delhi [when I was] around 10. I ran out of home when I was 16. Then I got a scholarship in the USA but did not know what I wanted to do. So I took up computer engineering. But it’s difficult to study abroad without any kind of financial backing. As I was good at computers, I could skip those classes and, instead, I would randomly attend classes in history, psychology and philosophy. I got into odd jobs to support myself, but throughout college life, I didn’t figure out my interest.

In 2010, I had this freakish accident in which I lost my eyesight and was told that I would never be able to see again. Usually, people would consider it a traumatic experience, but for me it was life-changing. For the first time, I wasn’t held back by thoughts of my future and jobs. I just had to cope and survive.

I automatically got into storytelling. I realized that since the time I had watched my first film, which was The Terminator (1984), I have been attracted to stuff related to stories. I took the random classes because I was interested in the story behind history, philosophy, and so on.

Suddenly, I felt that I had the superpower to imagine whatever I wanted to. My mom couldn’t come and see me then due to visa issues, and my friends were taking care of me. Every day around 20 people would show up and I would tell them stories. I thought I could be satisfied with life if I could continue to imagine and tell stories even if I couldn’t see ever again.

After a couple of months, I was told that I could regain my vision. Currently I can see with my right eye while the vision in my left eye is blurred. I get to wear these cool dark glasses all the time because I am very sensitive to light.

When you realize your passion and are given a second chance, there is no looking back. So, I jumped into filmmaking because I guess that’s the best forum for bringing stories together, and you can combine history, philosophy and music into it.

I started my journey of filmmaking from the perspective of learning; however, the one question I couldn’t find the answer to was how do I get people to see the film? I realized that unless you are part of a studio system, you don’t know how to get support as an independent filmmaker.

This was a personal problem for me because if I [had to] continue to make or produce films, I needed a sustainable livelihood as well. So, I took a step back and tried to figure out the problem from a tech guy’s perspective, with my interest in business and entrepreneurship. That became the genesis of what you see as MovieSaints.

It was a humble beginning. MovieSaints, because movies kind of saved my life. The idea to form MovieSaints was to get people to see independent films. The problem is that since there is no big star, most people don’t understand whether they should invest in an independent film. Hence, the idea was that people — the viewers — would support the filmmakers to help them continue making good films.

Here the people are the saints who decide the quality of the film as well. The ‘Support and Refund’ model echoes that idea. If you don’t like a film, you give your feedback and get a partial refund. Also, if you really like a film, you state that too and pay more money, supporting the filmmaker in a way.

How do you see the pay-per-view model and its future in India?

We, from Day 1, were pretty sure that pay-per-view was the model to go. The big OTT platforms provide a subscription model which doesn’t really serve the purpose of filmmakers. I will give you an analogy: if somebody writes a book, people should not go and look for it in libraries but purchase it in bookstores. If they never purchase the book, the revenue will not be generated. The pay-per-view model serves the purpose of the bookstore and the libraries are the subscription model.

I feel a film should go out on the pay-per-view model so that when there is a buzz, people can purchase it, generating higher revenue. After some period has passed, the film should be available on subscription. Pay-per-view basically mimics the theatrical mode.

We are about getting your film discovered, says MovieSaints COO Anupama Bose

Now, speaking of how the situation may turn out post-COVID, I would hope that theatres consider pay-per-view a friend and not an enemy. I can talk about how MovieSaints has been trying to do that from the pre-COVID era.

Being a movie lover, I believe the ultimate way to enjoy a movie is on the big screen in a dark room. But the hard reality is that there are not enough theatres as there are mobile or laptop screens. Accessibility is an issue. Not all films are released in every part of the country. Despite being aware of a film due to the social media buzz, people often do not travel to another city where the film has had a theatrical release.

Taking this situation into consideration, we block out the city where the film has had a theatrical release and make it accessible on MovieSaints for people from areas where the film hasn’t had a theatrical release.

We did this experiment with Aamis (2019) and it worked tremendously well. In 2019, the film had a theatrical release in the entire state of Assam and in some areas of Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata, Bangalore and Shillong. People hardly knew about the film when it was released as it is an indie film with debutant actors. People only knew that Anurag Kashyap had presented the film. So, people who watched the film in theatres would tell their friends elsewhere to watch online, and vice versa. As a result, after the first night, Aamis went houseful across all theatres. So, in this case, instead of taking the revenue, online was feeding offline and offline was feeding online too. The word-of-mouth worked tremendously.

Also, since Aamis is a meat-based film, restaurants, cafés and bars were ready to host it for a couple of nights. We did that too, applying the same model.

We did not do any marketing separately, yet that model worked so well that even after a year and a half, Aamis gets at least 100 views a month [on MovieSaints]. Also, I make it a point to reach out to five people every month and find out that they all came to know about the film through word-of-mouth. I bet on this model in 2016 and I believe this is the model for the future.

It doesn’t apply only to movies, but also to film festivals. Previously, to attend a screening at the New York Indian Film Festival, I had to travel from Philadelphia to New York, which took me three hours, and it was gruelling. Since last year, we have been applying the same model for the festival. Last year, viewers from 21 countries were able to virtually attend the festival. We blocked out New York and virtually screened the festival in Texas, Philadelphia and so on.

Online festivals were always an option, but no one thought about it: NYIFF director Aseem Chhabra

This is the second year of our association with NYIFF and we are delighted and humbled to power NYIFF's virtual edition. For over 20 years, NYIFF has showcased the best that Indian independent cinema has to offer. The New York Indian Film Festival brand is now becoming global. By helping such festivals go global, we are indirectly helping indie filmmakers find audiences around the world.

We apply the pay-per-view model because we want to serve the filmmakers and then the subscription model helps MovieSaints.

Since MovieSaints has been functional from the pre-COVID era, how has the pandemic changed the scenario for you?

We have not changed our operations because of COVID; the pandemic has shown that we were on the right track.

In the post-COVID situation there are a plethora of OTT platforms. None of them has invested their time and energy in protecting their platforms and hence you see so many films getting pirated within 24 hours of release. I don’t think piracy is a concern for these OTT platforms.

We, on the other hand, make sure there is no piracy. In the entire COVID situation, there has been zero instance of piracy [on MovieSaints]. Since 2016, there have been two piracy attempts and we were able to catch them within 24 hours. Previously, people hardly used to pay attention when I would deliver speeches regarding the importance of anti-piracy [mechanisms], but now there is a growing demand for our anti-piracy technology. Because a filmmaker doesn’t really have control over security while privately sharing a film link with a friend.

We have been building our system to secure the films and also to ensure that filmmakers, production companies and studios can send their films safely. Now people are mostly working from home. A filmmaker might want to have the background score done by someone sitting in another city, who cannot travel and work with the director together in a studio. These filmmakers are using our system so that only the sound producer can get access to their work.

COVID has forced us to evolve our technology to secure the pre-production and post-production of a film as well as the festival rounds.

There are also not many fund-raising opportunities these days as not many film labs are being held like before. In this scenario, we have already started an initiative called ‘Back This Film’ which is basically like many other fund-raising platforms but exclusively for films. The idea is that you are supporting to get credit in the film and if you support with a higher amount then you might get a stake in the film.

Many filmmakers are now reaching out to us to solve many of the security-related core problems. My vision is that MovieSaints will be able to serve filmmakers from pre-production to festival screening in a secure, seamless and global manner.

Even a big commercial film like Salman Khan's Radhe (2021) was released in theatres as well as on OTT platforms with a pay-per-view model. How do you think this will change the independent film scenario?

I think when Salman Khan releases an Eid film on OTT, every filmmaker and theatre is going to take notice of the fact that times have changed. In spite of all the piracy that happened, the model worked for them. Hence, they set an example for independent filmmakers that with the right marketing and proper strategy, they will be able to reach out to a wider audience.

Through social media people are getting to know about films from all over the world. Hence, I believe it is important to make films accessible to them at the same time and generate revenue from them through the pay-per-view model. Once a Salman-starrer reaches a particular individual who has never watched a film on phone, then the chances of that person looking at an independent film increase because now his habits are changing. I think it’s a great move and will bring audiences who were not into watching films on small screens into the habit.

Now not only avid movie lovers but also elderly people, who were never into watching films online, are accessing OTT platforms due to the pandemic situation. How do you see the way viewership is expanding?

I will point to a conversation I had with an elderly person after the New York Indian Film Festival 2020, who said, “Thank you for doing this because it was impossible for us to watch all the good films even though I live in New York. But because of you, I have been able to watch all the 40 films and I absolutely love it.”

This person didn’t know how to use Chrome and we had to sit with him to get him acquainted with the entire process of watching films online. Once we walked them through the process, they got quite excited. This year, they pre-ordered the entire catalogue of 2021.

People who didn’t want to get involved with technology because they found it a little tough are now forced to get into it and are adapting to it. Once you adapt to it, it is simple. I think it not only increases the audience, but also improves the demographics of the audience. Now people from the age group of 60–70 are sitting at home and watching films on their phones and iPads. A filmmaker would generally consider an audience from the age group of 15–40, who generally go to theatres, but now even 60- and 65-year-old people have access to films.

Now the marketing strategy is changing, and you will have to use your data to figure out how to reach the right people and make the connection with your target audience. If that is done smartly, it will benefit the producers and independent filmmakers tremendously.

Can you take us through the number of viewers on MovieSaints?

I just opened up an investigation to see why the numbers have increased because when someone logs in we get to know their location and that is how we deliver the films to them. Recently, our numbers have increased 600%! It’s not that everybody is paying for a certain film, but on an average 50,000–60,000 people are showing up on our site, trying to search stuff. A small percentage are paying for it. The rest are looking at films and saving them to watch later. Traffic has increased significantly. I am not sure if I will be able to give you the actual numbers, but I was stunned by the development.

What are your criteria of choosing independent films for your platform?

In recent times, the curation team could not keep up with the number of films we were receiving. So now we have come up with an approval system and a curation system. We ask filmmakers to submit their films. The approval system confirms a submission as a film and, following a theatrical model, reaches out to the filmmaker and works on the strategy of releasing the film on a date, depending on the director’s preference, and then asks the director to make a trailer announcement, then a behind-the-scenes announcement, and sound bites prior to the release. We give the filmmakers complete freedom on making the decisions on the release as well as on the prices they want to set. For example, the procedure is different for a documentary filmmaker and a fiction filmmaker. That’s how we do it.

During COVID, we had lakhs of submissions. Any filmmaker can go to MovieSaints.com/submit, submit their film and click on submit. Then they have to fill in the questionnaire for the release and then we release the film. In other words, MovieSaints should not be simply considered a film library; we have a release arm, just like a theatre. The difference is that because we are online, we can take in a lot more films, instead of restricting ourselves to 19 or 20 screens.

Right now, we are focused on Indian films because I am connected to India and also the USA. Sooner or later, we are going to scale up to Europe and Russia. We are having conversations with certain filmmakers and distribution companies from Russia. That’s the way we have set up our platform post-COVID.