Made in Bengaluru: Buoyed by the support from start-up community, Pradeep Sastry & Co. seeks newer targets

In an exclusive chat with OTTplay, writer-director Pradeep Sastry talks about the support his film has been receiving with the tech community of Bengaluru

Poster of Made in Bengaluru

Pradeep Sastry's directorial debut Made in Bengaluru has garnered positive reviews from all corners, with critics and audiences alike heaping praise on the makers for their novel attempt. The film captures the vibrant start-up and entrepreneurial culture of Bengaluru and in the same vein presents the city as a place that ardently nurtures and watches over those who seek help and respite. Following an encouraging beginning at the box office, Pradeep Sastry & Co. has attracted highly yielding support from the start-up community of Bengaluru which is now making significant contributions to the cause.

"The response from the start-up community is really rewarding because our film's ethos is about giving life to ideas and surviving in a place like Bengaluru. We have had Mr. Bharath Balaraj of iqlabs.io and Sentient endorse us by sponsoring as many as 100 tickets and similarly, Mr. Madan Padaki, Founder & CEO of 1Bridge sponsored movie tickets and also vocally spread the word about the film at a recent tech summit. M.S. Ramaiah Institute of Technology's 'Ramaiah Evolute', an entrepreneurship program, too, watched the film recently and members of Tejasvi Surya's (member of parliament from Bengaluru South) leadership program have expressed great interest in watching the film. Alongside, Made in Bengaluru is part of an organization's CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) activity wherein 10,000 people are likely to watch the film and feel encouraged by the message it carries. We ought to feel lucky about the kind of support that's coming our way with the tech community, specifically, owning the film and endorsing it wholeheartedly," says writer-director Pradeep Sastry.

Not very long ago, former Karnataka Chief Minister S.M. Krishna, who is often regarded as an instrumental force in the growth of IT in Bengaluru, hailed the film for its tender gaze toward an entrepreneur and how, the film, personifies Bengaluru as the caring motherly figure.

Simultaneously, the team of Made of Bengaluru is now keen on taking their film beyond Bengaluru and expanding their reach by including audiences from smaller cities and towns. The film has been touted all along as a 'multiplex' release with shows in cities like Bengaluru, Shivamogga, Hubballi, Mysuru, Mangaluru, and others but the makers are curious as to how the supposed 'single screen' audience responds. Made in Bengaluru had its first single screen showing recently in Bengaluru.

"We used the first of the theatrical run to understand the audience reaction to the film - unanimously, people have said that they really like it for what it represents and talks about but there is a small concern regarding the 3-hour runtime, in the same vein. So, now that we have gauged the response and understood the word on the street, we are using the second week of the run to potentially expand the market a little. We are left with only a few days to do that because come Sankranthi, there are 3-4 massive Telugu & Tamil releases that will take away a vast majority of the theatrical space," adds Sastry.

The makers of Made in Bengaluru are currently in talks with a major streaming platform for digital rights and one can expect the film to premiere soon on OTT.

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