A New Breed of Filmmakers Are Banking On Tech-Based Startups For Talent Recruitment

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A new breed of filmmakers are banking on

tech-based startups for talent recruitment
In an industry that relies heavily on personal networks or bad old nepotism to bring artists onboard a project,
these apps may seem futile at first.
By Shephali Bhatt, ET Bureau | Updated: March 22, 2020, 12.03AM IST
Like everyone in showbiz, Medha Aich, 29, knows that casting agents are extremely busy people.
By some estimates, they meet more aspiring actors in a day than all the named characters in eight
seasons of Game of Thrones —which is upwards of 200. “It is possible for them to forget you if
you don’t stay in touch regularly,” says Aich, a Delhi-based actor.
This insight prompted her to upload her portfolio on digital platforms like Talentrack and FTC
Talent, which are some of the leading apps in talent hiring in the media and entertainment (M&E)
sector.
These platforms allow artists — actors, singers, dancers, music composers, screenwriters and
voice-over artists, among others — to upload their profiles. Recruiters — who sign up for different
packages, ranging from Rs 10,000 a month to Rs 50,000 a year — can access these profiles and
shortlist candidates as per their requirement. They can also post job openings for people to apply
directly; artists have to pay a fee to access these.
In an industry that relies heavily on personal networks or bad old nepotism to bring artists onboard
a project, these apps may seem futile at first. However, Aich got her ticket to Bollywood through
one of them. Four months ago, she debuted in the Hindi film industry as part of the ensemble cast
of Nawazuddin Siddiqui-starrer Motichoor Chaknachoor.
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/startups/features/a-new-breed-of-filmmakers-are-banking-on-tech-based-startups-for-talent-recruitmen… 1/6
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Medha Aich
“Casting agents can forget people who don’t stay in touch regularly. I got many leads,
including the audition for Motichoor Chaknachoor, after registering on credible digital
platforms” Medha Aich, debuted in Hindi movies with Motichoor Chaknachoor
“I got a call from FTC Talent. My profile on the app was shortlisted for a role.” While FTC was
directly involved in casting for this project, the app has over 250 recruiters from M&E.
Run by actor Suniel Shetty and his sister Sujata Shetty-Hegde, the platform has over 2 lakh
registered artistes of whom 1,200 have found jobs through the marketplace. The numbers at
Talentrack are even more promising: over 4 lakh artistes and some 15,000 recruiters from various
M&E companies. As of December 31, 2019, it clocked an annual revenue of Rs 1.4 crore in the
calendar year. “We are looking to hit Rs 3 crore in 2020 and hope to operationally break even in
2021,” says Vineet Bajpai, founder.
FTC Talent, 2018 Media & entertainment (M&E) talent services marketplace and
edutainment app
edutainment app New
NewsBuzz Founders:
Features Suniel Shetty, Sujata Shetty-Hegde No. of Artists: 200,000 No. of Recruiters: 250
Funding: $4 mn (seed), looking to raise $12-15 mn in Series A Annual Revenue: Not
disclosed
“We eliminate middlemen for those who want to work in this industry. We may not
guarantee everyone jobs, but they get to know where the jobs are even as they are sitting
in their hometowns” Suniel Shetty.
Digital platforms to aid recruitment in M&E have been around for a while. In 2016, when cab
aggregators and ecommerce companies emerged as hot commodities of the internet economy,
many tried to emulate their model to digitise the hiring process for showbiz. Most failed, some
pivoted. Those who stayed, like FTC and Talentrack, struggled.
“It was in a chicken-and egg situation. Artistes would ask how many recruiters are on the platform,
while recruiters would enquire about the number of artistes,” recalls Bajpai. Getting big-banner
production houses on board was near impossible. “The A-listers don’t come even now,” says
Suniel Shetty.
Talentrack, 2015 Media & entertainment talent-services marketplace app Founder: Vineet
Bajpai No. of Artists: 400,000 No. of Recruiters: 15,000 Funding: $2.7 mn (seed), looking to
raise $4 mn in Series A Annual Revenue: $190,000
“We are working towards a behavioural change in the older players. New filmmakers and
production houses, though, are excited about our offering” Vineet Bajpai.
Over the last two years, though, a new breed of filmmakers has taken to these tech-based
startups for talent recruitment. These are individuals, small-scale content companies, short-film
production houses and studios pitching to OTT channels such as ZEE5, SonyLIV and ALTBalaji.
From TVF to Pocket Aces and Arré, many new-age content firms have shown interest in their
offering.
Digital content platform Arré has used Talentrack to cast actors for two of its video projects so far,
says Archana Karulkar, VP-HR, Arré. “I find it easy to use the platform. They curate a list of top 10
artistes, based on your query, which narrows down your search.” For companies that specialises in
making short films with lean teams and can’t afford to dedicate resources for casting, these
platforms come in handy.
“We are trying to use tech to create a system that removes inefficiencies in the film
production business. It’s like entering a jungle with a sickle in hand” Sandeep Varma
Filmboard, 2017 Media & entertainment B2B online marketplace Founders: Sandeep Varma,
Rajesh Butta No. of Vendors: 7,000 No. of Buyers: 200 Funding: $230,000 (seed), looking to
raise $1 mn Pre-Series A Revenue so far: $108,000
One such company, Humaramovie, regularly works with platforms like FTC and Talentrack.
Humaramovie, which has 919,000 subscribers on its YouTube channel, releases one short film
every week. “We like to work with new talent and these platforms enable that by giving access to
their database for a particular period for a certain fee,” says Abhishek Gautam, associate producer
at the company. Gautam appreciates how the entire casting process happens online — shortlisted
artists can upload an audition video on the app itself. “We are a small firm. It doesn’t make
monetary sense for us to rent a place for large-scale auditions, given the volume of work we do on
a weekly basis.” The channel has released 450 short films so far and has hired around 20 artistes
through these apps for the last few projects.
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How online recruitment works in showbiz
Rank outsiders often marvel at the level of professionalism these platforms can bring to the hiring
process. Rutuja Arali, 28, a medical student in Mumbai, recalls the time she decided to dabble in
modelling and acting in 2017-18. “I didn’t know where or how to start so I went online looking for
any portals that could help.” Initially, she feared falling for something fraudulent.
After reading a handful of testimonials on Talentrack’s site, she signed up. Soon after, she got a
chance to play a character role in a mythological Kannada show called Jai Hanuman on Udaya
TV. “I was auditioned online and paid in time. No one did anything wrong,” she says, with a tone of
surprise palpable to anyone who has heard horror stories of outsiders’ struggle to get a break.
“Women rarely find work in this industry through a professional channel,” she says, but this
experience made her realise that “we are living in good times”.
When hiring happens through personal networks, paperwork is often overlooked. Behind closed
doors, many artists whine about established producers not paying up. A marketplace puts a
structure to this system. An interaction between artist and recruiter leaves a digital trail, making
both parties more accountable not just to each other but to the marketplace, too. Just like Amazon
can blacklist vendors, and Uber can delist drivers for bad behaviour, FTC and Talentrack can and
have removed defaulters on both sides in the past.
Now, two BITS Pilani graduates are trying to bring in similar automation and accountability to film
production. Through Filmboard, a B2B online marketplace for M&E, cofounders Sandeep Varma
and Rajesh Butta are building a platform for producers and directors to find talent for creative and
technical aspects of filmmaking, even resources and equipment for departments like camera,
sound, light, costume, location, pre- and post-production, among others.
“By industry estimates, the below-the-line or production related expenses in the audio-visual
content creation industry, come to `30,000 crore,” says Varma, a former adman. Movies, big and
small, generally go 10% over the budget, he adds. Varma says that a lot of money is unaccounted
for in film production due to lack of transparency and documentation of every transaction. They
intend to change that. At Filmboard, vendors have to disclose their rates upfront. Like any other
marketplace, it has a review and rating system to ensure vendor accountability.
With just over 7,000 vendors and 200 buyers on board, the platform, although at a nascent stage,
has found takers in media companies like Josh Talks, whose YouTube channel alone has over 2
million subscribers. “Our association began three months ago when we were looking for a studio
space in Mumbai,” says Mokshit Ahuja, event executive at the Gurgaon-based company that
curates inspirational content for online and offline events and workshops.
Ahuja, 22, was impressed with the transparency between the vendor and the user. “Through the
platform, I found vendors for camera equipment who provided better quality stuff at one-third the
price we were paying our vendor of five years.”
The business model has got independent content creator Riya Mukherjee, who has spent 25 years
in the creative business, to hop on as a seed investor in Filmboard. The company has raised Rs
1.7 crore in seed funding from a handful of investors so far. “What frustrates me about the M&E
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Features A great creative idea shouldn¡¦t hinge on that,¡¨ says Mukherjee. But she knows this
industry has a lot of people with their little black book of contacts, now converted to mobile
contacts, worth their weight in gold. ¡§I can imagine the resistance Filmboard must be facing in
getting people on board."
It is a new concept for an industry that¡¦s still grappling with the idea of casting through an app.
Scepticism is natural, says Khushboo Virwani, a line producer with two years of experience in
showbiz. Her job involves managing the budget and daily operations of film production. Since
signing up on Filmboard in August last year, Virwani has got three new projects. The best part, she
says, is the timely payment. "A line producer deals with several months of payment delays on
every project. Filmboard streamlines this as you start work only when the client accepts your
payment guidelines."
While all artists like upfront payment, a model that facilitates this can work against these platforms
as they scale up, says Gautam of Humaramovie. "The M&E industry works on credit and is used
to paying once a project is over."
Varma of Filmboard likens their work to "§entering a jungle with a sickle in hand". There's the issue
of not having enough prominent names in the database. There's the inertia that prevents people
from changing the status quo.
Besides, many filmmakers are part of over 50 popular groups across Facebook, LinkedIn, and
WhatsApp, created by industry insiders for last-minute hiring of cast and crew. Amid all these
challenges, Suniel Shetty of FTC is content he is doing his bit in eliminating middlemen for artists
wanting to enter this industry. He, too, was an outsider to this world once. ¡§We may not guarantee
everyone jobs, but they get to know where the jobs are while sitting in their hometowns," he says.
This is true of Dhanveer Singh, 32, a former radio jockey from Barnala district, Punjab. An only
graduate in his family, he got his big break when he was cast for the role of Salim in the musical
play Mughale-Azam, directed by Feroz Abbas Khan. Singh had uploaded his profile on FTC's
website back in 2016 (the app launched only in 2018).
"I was in Chandigarh when the casting began in Mumbai,"¨ he says. If not for his online profile that
also mentioned his master's degree in Urdu, Singh is pretty sure someone else would have been
hoarding accolades for a show that has been running to packed theatres within and outside the
country for four years now.
It's a role that has given him a lot of respect as an actor, and more projects for OTT channels
thereafter. A happily ever after, thanks to a casting app.
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3/22/2020 Features - Startups - Small Biz - The Economic Times

A new breed of filmmakers are banking on

How online recruitment works in showbiz

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