Shyama

Now that Shyama is complete...

...we finally have a chance to give you an update about our progress. We completed Shyama last week and have moved into the distribution phase. As we've indicated in earlier blog entries and news, our release strategy for Shyama does not follow the traditional distribution model of a territory-by-territory release going from theatrical to home video to Pay TV to Free TV with video download somewhere in between. We just don't think the traditional distribution model is relevant for a fairly specialised film like ours with a widely dispersed, worldwide target audience.

Of course, the internet itself, wider internet access and the popularity of home cinema/theatre systems over the past couple of years presents us with a world of opportunities. For example, if you are registered with an online digital music store, you may already have spotted the 70-minute Shyama soundtrack album - if not, just search for 'Shyama soundtrack album'. Wherever you are in the world, you can listen to extracts from it and, who knows, you might even like to buy it, especially as the ensemble cast have given world class performances. The tracks are all open to personal copying so, if you think a friend or relative would like the album, please feel free to make a copy for them.

Part of the reason for Shyama's long post-production period was to allow time for people to adapt to the new technology and also to watch for developments. One of these was Chris Anderson's next 'big idea' after bringing us the Long Tail theory. The title of his next book is 'Free', due out in June 2009, but sketched out through his blog at www.thelongtail.com . In September, he identified four 'free economics' models: http://www.longtail.com/the_long_tail/2008/09/revised-the-fou.html  . This was reassuring for us since we realised that various levels of our release strategy for Shyama make use of all four models.

We'll go into more detail in another post. For the time being, here are the acknowledgements from the end credits. The first two lines mention those who have helped or influenced the production of Shyama and the remaining lines mention those who have helped or influenced its distribution.

I should also mention that Kaberi and I are about to start presenting 10 episodes of the Shyama podcast soon. Each episode will include an update on the release, some background about Tagore and Shyama, and a 30-second extract from the film.

Special Thanks to: Somendranath Bandhopadhyay, Mritunjoy Chakroborty, Sujit Chatterjee, Subhasis Das, Nani Gopal Ghosh, Steve Jobs, Binod Mahato, Graeme Nattress, Ranajit & Shipra Roy, Chris Anderson, Peter Broderick, Peter Buckingham, Susan Buice, Arin Crumley, Geraldine de Paepe, Norbert Eber, Graham Fortin, Carlos Moreno, Adriana Opromolla, Irina Orssich, Stephen Streater, David Tosics, www.bravenewtheaters.com and www.movieset.com

-Obhi Chatterjee