Pay-per-view platform Movie Saints owner on streaming giants: ‘They are competing for subscriptions, we’re not’

Jhini Bini Chadariya is presented by Anurag Kashyap

Ajira Rungta remembers watching Ritesh Sharma's directorial venture, Jhini Bini Chadariya, at the 2021 Dharamshala International Film Festival. Right then, she knew it was just the kind of film she was seeking for her platform, Movie Saints. "I told Ritesh that I want to make everybody watch this movie. He had been taking Jhini Bini Chadariya to various film festivals, and wanted to sell it to an OTT platform, but the deal couldn't happen. That's how our journey [with this film] started," recalls Rungta.

Ajira Rungta

Jhini Bini Chadariya, presented by Anurag Kashyap, is one of the many indie films that have found a home in Movie Saints. Instead of seeking subscribers, the platform follows a pay-per-view model sustained by cinephiles across the globe, offering a space where indie filmmakers can recover costs. The idea is to foster a parallel ecosystem for independent cinema. Rungta launched the niche platform in 2019 with the Assamese film Aamis (2019), but it was hit during the pandemic. Now, as the platform is being resurrected, Rungta is relying on discerning audiences and strong word-of-mouth to generate buzz around it. "Filmmakers are good at making films, but they are not good at marketing them. We thought of marrying that with the community of influencers, who are writing about films. Plus, the audience is fed up with mainstream cinema. We have lesser known films. Our pitch is simple - [watch] the movie; if you don't like it, don't talk about it. But if you like it, do talk about it on your social media."

A still from Jhini Bini Chadariya

Rungta further says, "This is how we are building a network of people, who are helping us to support these films. The sheer love of cinema is the draw."

As she builds a community of film enthusiasts, Rungta doesn't view OTT giants like Netflix and Prime Video as competition. "They are competing for subscriptions. We are competing against pay-per-view models," she explains. To her, the platform is also a means to empower indie filmmakers as a portion of the earnings
go to the filmmaker. "Say, if Netflix pays a filmmaker R10 lakh for his movie and only 100 people watched it, the filmmaker wins here because he got a lump sum amount. But if 1 lakh people watched it and he only got R10 lakh, then it's a win-win for Netflix. It is essential to make the filmmaker part of the film's success."