'Internet protocol television best for small budget films'

Mumbai, July 29 (IANS) US-based IT professional Sunil Babbar, whose Hinglish film 'Ants' won critical acclaim, says Internet Protocol Television (ITPV) is the best outlet for small-budget films to reach out to people.

Babbar made his small-budget movie 'Ants' in Hinglish in 2002.

It was about a busload of Indian passengers meeting one another for the first time in the US and how they became friendly through the journey only to end up as strangers again.

Sunil Babbar's 'Ants' not only won the 'Best Foreign Film' award at the Yellowstone International Film Festival, Montana, US, but it also got a major exposure in the country through its release on three leading Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) medium.

'Releasing Indian movies overseas is no big deal. What matters the most is to get the acceptability for them abroad. I believe, for small-budget movies, IPTV is the best outlet to reach out to people,' Babbar told IANS Tuesday.

He is currently in Mumbai to launch his new movie 'Bhangra Beats', which will be made in English and dubbed in Hindi later.

'Instead of making it in Hinglish, it is better that way for acceptability abroad,' he said.

The movie, Babbar said, is about an internationally renowned Punjabi pop singer and how realization dawns on him that singers like him earn their riches pirating the works of the folk singers, who live in penury but never cease to create music.

Tushar Jalota, who last appeared in Mahesh Bhatt's 'Showbiz' will play male lead opposite Australian actress Elle Hanh. The rest of the cast comprises artistes from India and Britain. Uttam Singh will score the music.

How did Babbar manage to get a non-star-cast Hinglish movie like 'Ants' released in US theatres?

'I was fortunate that Eric Louzil, CEO of Echelon Studio, saw the movie at the Montana festival and he came forward to buy its distribution rights. The movie got 5-star rating in the US and Canada for one full week in January this year,' he said.

Echelon Studio will also market 'Bhangra Beats' abroad.