Mahesh Kumar’s Pesarattu all set to be first crowd funded film

Film director Mahesh Kumar Kathi claims that his upcoming venture Pesarattu is all set to be the industry’s first crowd funded film. "Pesarattu is a film of the people, by the people, for the people," the filmmaker says.

"Audiences are the producers of my film. It is Tollywood's first crowd funded film, financed by interested public who want to see it," adds Mahesh.

"I put up the synopsis of the story online and asked interested people to chip in. We raised `50 lakh needed to make the film through contributions ranging from Rs 50,000 to Rs 12, 00,000 from 12 producers," explains Mahesh.

“We have 34 new actors making their debut with this film and I found all of them through my social networking site. Lead actors also got in touch with me after stumbling on my post," says Mahesh, adding that the movie has just one paid actress Nikitha Narayan who took "a token payment".

"The film is based on the principles of collective ownership and mutual cooperation and everyone who came on board believed in the idea of cooperative filmmaking," says actor Nandu, who plays opposite Nikitha in the movie.

The film revolves around a commitment-phobic student named Bhavana. "I know a lot of friends who are commitment-phobic and that's what drew me when about the character. It's a very contemporary character that will strike a chord with the audiences," says Nikitha adding, "The whole film plays out on the day of the engagement."