EmotionalFulls: how Sameer Mishra and Sandeep Jha made a business model out of their movie-making passion
EmotionalFulls: JazbaatonkaPitaara (or a hamper of emotions), as the name aptly suggests, is all about emotionally-charged stuff. Movie buffs, Sameer Mishra and Sandeep Jha, co-founded EmotionalFulls, a Youtube channel, which currently has more than 50,000 subscribers. This creative channel showcases short films with the aim of creating quality web content in large volumes that enjoys a wide reach.
Describing the aim of the channel, Sameer says: “We, as film-makers want to make whatever we want to make, and not what we think people want to see. At the end it is your creative satisfaction that matters the most.”
The birth of EmotionalFulls
An IIT Bombay graduate, Sameer Mishra, co-founded SilverScreen, the film club of IIT Bombay and started making short films. He made several short films and won awards at various college and national-level film festivals. After college, Sameer joined an IT company in Hyderabad, but realized that his heart lay in film-making. So he quit his job to follow his passion.
Sharing the same dream was his friend Sandeep Jha. Sandeep had experience in corporate films and had covered cricket for ESPN and Star Sports. He also had done a brief stint with TVF in the spoof and humor domain.
So the two got together and shot films around the ideas that were bursting within them. Sameer recalls: “We made a couple of short films during the summer of 2013 and showed them to our friends, who encouraged us to upload the films online. We had been associated with a Youtube channel in the past, and were aware of its reach and other commercial aspects.”
The duo decided to take the plunge and start their channel on Youtube in August 2013. And EmotionalFulls was born.
The initial days and the subsequent work flow
The founders had reservations about the size of the audience on Youtube that would be attracted to serious content. “Will the current Internet user – primarily youth, like our videos? We wanted to cater to the emotional side of the people. But many advised against taking that route. Especially with the male audience, where emotions are only received, not shared or exhibited. But we still went ahead with it,” says Sandeep.
Their first production was ‘BadalteyZamane,’ that depicted the life of a postman. As always, Sameer was particular about the correct settings, music, and the type of people who worked with him to roll out his vision. What started as an erratic movie-making schedule was brought to shape by the expanding team’s vision.
Sameer and Sandeep are proud of the efforts that their team has invested in bringing value to EmotionalFulls. Currently, apart from the duo, the team includes Gaganjeet Singh, Aatish Kumar, and Meet Pandya. Ashay Gangwar and Vikrant Singh Kirar collaborate as DOPs, Vinju Jacob Thomas creates the magical background scores, and Goonja Gandhi composes the songs. Sameer himself is the script writer.
Resourcefulness is of great importance for a small team that is not on a big budget. This includes setting up perfect structures from nothing and shooting outdoors in natural settings, whether it is a chai kithadi or traffic light signal. “Ever since Gaganjeet has joined us, we start shooting anytime and anywhere,” says Sameer, throwing light on the enthusiasm of the bright, energetic team.
Small productions and themed videos based on occasions like Women’s Day or important events are getting them laurels. But it is their huge fanbase and their feedback that keeps the team on its toes.
Sandeep adds: “We are very happy with the support and appreciation we receive from our fans. At the end of the day, we are happy that we are doing what we love. We have not only turned our passion into our core strength, but also into an evolving and successful business model.”
Future plans
The team is now coming up with a comedy channel called ‘Draamebaaz’. They also plan to venture into non-fiction films. Their first play, ‘Victoria time pe’ happened when they kept receiving requests from people to perform.
They have a vision of making it big in the movie industry someday. But the duo says that enjoying the process of creating art is the critical component, not the scale. Clients such as Ola, Paperboat, Bewakoof.com, and others will surely vouch for that.
The short film market potential is estimated to reach around 20 crore in the near future. And EmotionalFulls is heading in the right direction shooting away.
You can see the videos created by EmotionalFulls on their official Youtube channel.
https://www.youtube.com/user/emotionalfullsvideos
or get in touch with them on [email protected]
(Co-author: Priyamvada Tiwari)
