Indian Lesbian Love Story Generates Hot Internet

2 months ago 12th Mar 15:22

Kelli Holsopple and Chriselle AlmeidaThe latest micro-budget indie film to employ the internet to build a large audience is also the first-ever cross-cultural Indian lesbian love story. Meet When Kiran Met Karen, and prepare to grow well acquainted because you're going to be reading, hearing and seeing a lot about this movie in 2008.

"An audience is already aware and excited about this movie," said its co-writer and director, Manan Singh Katohora. India-born Katohora came to the USA a decade ago and has proactively used the internet, particularly news groups, to create a networking vessel for artists of Indian-descent living around the world, particularly in North America. Katohora, 32, has built a database of more than 100,000 people, and each already has varying degrees of awareness about When Kiran Met Karen (WKMK) and the film has yet to play a single festival or ink a distribution deal.

"We kept feeding our information to everyone and they have now become part of the journey," Katohora, whose debut feature, Arya, was released in 2003, said.

Cultivating new and untraditional marketing techniques is the road to success for today's micro-budget indie filmmakers. Comedian Tyler Perry built a huge movie career by networking through Black churches. Documentaries, particularly political ones like Iraq for Sale and Outfoxed, generated buzz at house party screenings. And the internet is critical to self and hybrid distribution strategies, for proof look no farther than new age philosophical tract The Secret which sold more than 250,000 DVD copies via the internet before it even became available through traditional retail outlets such as Amazon, and the little picture that could - Four Eyed Monsters - a small romantic charmer with a dedicated website that the filmmakers exploited along with YouTube, MySpace, and e-mail lists to bring the movie to the world. Now more than 1 million people have seen part or all of Four Eyed Monsters.

"It's been very helpful," Katohora said of the high internet profile for WKMK, which has just completed post-production. "Distributors have been asking for screeners for the past three months."

WKMK was shot in 27 days. The production crew numbered about 15 and the project was videotaped on Hi Def cameras at a total cost of $120,000. When it came time to film the movie last fall in New York City, Katohora looked to his internet base for support.

"And when people saw that we weren't just talking, that the film was actually happening, they came forward and helped us," Katohora said. A man of Indian descent donated use of his $10 million Long Island mansion for filming. Another Indian man donated use of his swank Times Square hotel. Katohora provided the initial financing but then an Indian-born man in Michigan stepped forward with the remaining funds and became the film's executive producer. It's understandable why all this has happened, as it is near impossible not to get caught up in the enthusiasm that Katohora and his collaborators have for their project.

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