TVF to independently produce upcoming films, tapping digital community for theatrical footfall

The Mumbai-based web series producer is currently creating two to three small-to-medium budgeted movies, which will be “substantially developed” by December, a top executive told Mint. Title, first look, and trailer announcements are expected to be rolled out by around 2026.

This development comes as TVF has managed to amass more than 22 million (2.2 crore) cumulative followers and subscribers through its presence across YouTube, Instagram, and other digital platforms. The maker of over 50 shows now wants to leverage this audience base as their theatrical audience to watch movies created under TVF Motion Pictures.

Compare this with TVF’s competitors, including Saregama-acquired Pocket Aces Pictures Pvt. Ltd, which created Little Things (2016-2021) and Krafton-backed Rusk Media, which has cumulatively 10.5 million followers across Instagram and YouTube.

“Our focus has always been on catering to different kinds of communities through our shows,” Vijay Koshy, president, TVF, told Mint in an interview.

Some of TVF’s most popular shows include the comedy series Panchayat, set in a fictional Indian village that depicts various strands of rural politics. Kota Factory and Aspirants focus on students preparing for India’s competitive exams, such as the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) and the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) exam, respectively.

“Even if about a thousand people watch and like a show, they are most likely to spread the word about it, creating positive word-of-mouth reviews,” added Koshy.

TVF now wants to tap into its dedicated fan base for its shows to reach audiences that pay for theatrical tickets for their movies. Koshy did not immediately reveal TVF’s distribution strategy for its independently produced slate.

Most independent mainstream film producers seek distribution firms or independent distributors to theatrically release films. Distribution, and streaming, music and television rights deals are usually struck during the post-production stages.

Using communities

Communities formed over digital platforms or in the real world have been used to market products since consumerism came into existence. “Community-driven marketing happens when a movie is reaching out to a niche,” said Natasha Nayak, film marketer and founder, Culture Shock Media.

For instance, Rajkumar Hirani-directed 3 Idiots (2009) could be marketed to engineers, as the story revolves around students studying in an engineering college, which would resonate with them, adds Nayak.

An engaged community on YouTube and social media platforms, combined with TVF’s vocation-focused series-making skills, could create a direct audience for the firm to advertise its films.

“Our community and word-of-mouth should lead people to theatres, and footfalls should happen. But fingers crossed,” Koshy added. TVF’s in-house movies will be made on modest spends of between ₹10 crore and ₹50 crore.

In the current digital world of information overload, movies find it difficult to get takers as a film’s trailer, among other marketing devices, gets lost in a slew of content.

TVF’s first film Vvan-Force of the Forrest, starring Siddharth Malhotra and Tamannaah Bhatia, is backed by Balaji Motion Pictures (run under Balaji Telefilms Ltd), a top movie studio in India known for films including The Dirty Picture (2011), Ragini MMS (2011) and Udta Punjab (2016).

The “folk-thriller” was set to release in 2025, but is now expected to release next year.

Unlike Vvan, TVF’s future films would be made on modest budgets with newer and “fresh” actors in young-adult, romcom and satirical family genres, said Koshy.

After finding success in the digital series space, starting a motion pictures division is a natural progression for TVF, Koshy told this reporter about two years ago.

Trouble in paradise

In recent times, more than a dozen production houses have mushroomed across Mumbai, Mint reported, even though the movie ecosystem is witnessing one of its worst downturns.

The creation of small-to-medium budget films by emerging production houses could prove to be good news for the Hindi film ecosystem, which is in desperate need of a revival.

A healthy movie ecosystem also requires a balanced flow of big-budget star vehicles and small-to-medium budget releases to sustain the industry.

TVF’s decision to produce movies independently comes at a time when India’s film ecosystem is going through financial turmoil, as a plethora of big-budget movies have either bombed or underperformed at the box office over the last few years. These include Akshay Kumar-starrers action Bade Miyan Chote Miyaan and historical-fiction Samrat Prithviraj, and Maidaan, a sports drama featuring Ajay Devgn.

Due to this, small-to-medium budget movies, which act as any movie industry’s backbone, are finding it difficult to secure financial backing and theatrical screens as studios, distributors, and exhibitors are jittery about such a movie’s potential to drive footfalls among India’s price-conscious and evolved audiences.

Modestly budgeted box office cash generators have also been released, such as romance-musical Saiyaara (2025) and sleeper hit 12th Fail (2023). However, such films have been few since theatres reopened in March 2022.

Made on limited budgets, between ₹10 crore and ₹50 crore, and featuring slightly known or completely new actors, small-to-medium budget films solely depend on a compelling story and premise to capture the audience’s attention. Making such films also becomes a playground for emerging writing, acting, and directing talent to practice their craft, while designers, editors, vendors, technicians, and spot boys, among many others, find employment as crew members.

Early times

“There are some very interesting stories that we want to tell through films,” said Vijay Koshy, president, TVF, in an interaction. “We have been successful in showing a profession or vocation and building an authentic story around it through our shows. This has helped us reach India’s wide-ranging viewers. We hope to recreate the same authenticity in our films as well,” Koshy added.

If TVF is able to drive its community’s audience to cinema halls, such an organized marketing and distribution model would be the first to emerge from the Indian movie ecosystem.

Founded in 2012 under Contagious Online Media Networks by Arunabh Kumar, an IIT-Kharagpur graduate with experience in film and advertising, and a few other IITians, TVF started as a YouTube channel posting song and movie parody videos. The YouTube channel’s breakthrough came with Rowdies, a spoof of the reality TV show Roadies, which went viral more than a decade ago. The initial core team consisted of Sameer Saxena, who left his cushy consultant job, former lawyer Nidhi Bisht, and Saurabh Khanna, among others.

Saxena was also involved in directing TVF’s first original show, Permanent Roommates (2014). Since then, the firm has been releasing at least one original show every year. In 2015, TVF entered the streaming business by launching TVFPlay, a free-to-watch platform that also attracted its first-ever venture capital investment, a $10 million funding round led by New York-based Tiger Global Management.

In FY24, TVF reported total revenue of ₹161 crore, a slight dip year-on-year, while profits after tax came in at ₹14.5 crore, per the latest available data from research platform Tracxn.

A post released on Medium, in 2017, alleging workplace sexual harassment by Founder Arunabh Kumar, led to him being replaced by Dhawal Gusain, who later joined Disney+Hotstar (now JioHotstar). Currently, Kumar, with Deepak Mishra, one of Panchayat’s creators, is co-directing and is also named as a producer on Vvan.