Click to play videoHyderabad: How do you work your way up the popularity charts of a B-school as revered as the Indian School of Business? High grades? Well, a first-time Telugu film producer is all set to prove you wrong.
A Telugu film, Ashta Chamma, released in September last year has been running successfully till date. Made on a modest budget of Rs 1.6 crore, it's box-office returns have reportedly crossed Rs 7 crore till date and it's now been selected as entrepreneurial case study by Hyderabad's Indian School of Business (ISB).
Ashta Chamma had new faces, a new director and a first-time producer who happens to be an IIM-A alumnus, Ram Mohan.
"I keep telling my colleagues and batchmates from my management school that this is what happens if you don't attend classes. You end up becoming a case study," says Ram Mohan.
While for Ram this is a way of giving back to his academics, for ISB professors it's an opportunity to study Tollywood and this project in particular, given the business avenues that the film industry presents to entrepreneurs.
While five students worked on building the case study, it is now being heard and analysed by more than 250 potential business gurus through regular interactions with the filmmaker.
Assistant Professor Finance ISB, Rajesh says, "In recent years there has been a trend of corporates making films as producers, so we would certainly like to understand more about Tollywood as a movie industry."
After three nominations in the recently concluded Filmfare awards and a Best Actress award under its belt, it looks like an academic honour was all that was missing from the achievement list of this not-so-typical love story, which will soon be remade in Hindi.
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