This startup gives indie filmmakers high tech tools usually reserved for the biggies

The team at Indee. Founder Sharan Reddy is on the far right.

Sharan Reddy is one of those people who has movies etched into his destiny.

It all started with Sharan’s grandfather, who left his village after getting into a fight with his family. Furious, he sold the bit of land he had to his name and took the overnight train hundreds of miles away into the bustling city then known as Madras.

The small town he left was abuzz with rumors about what was going on – “Your son has spoiled all his money and has to sleep in his friend’s house,” said one friend, while others gossiped about the many criminal activities he was indulging in. Little did they know, the man had a big dream – he wanted to build south India’s first movie theater.

“It was inspired by Mumbai’s famous Liberty Theater… well, actually he basically just ripped it off,” laughs Sharan. “It was right in the middle of this giant wooded area. He built an entire road just so people could access it, and the area soon became the hub for the Tamil film industry.”

Legend passed down through the family, and Sharan recounts fond memories of watching movies with his cousins over popcorn and Chettinad food. By the time he hit college, it was obvious that Sharan couldn’t escape film. “I ended up building a movie streaming website when I was an undergraduate student, and it was purchased by Sify,” he said. “They never ended up using it and [the site] went to RealPlayer instead, but that was my first real foray into the world of movies.”

Today, he runs Indee, a startup that gives filmmakers a secure way to promote and share their movies before release. This is important because those early releases are sent to film festival judges or critics – and then end up getting leaked, uploaded to torrenting websites, and downloaded onto computers. According to Sharan, films lose around 20 percent of their revenue once they’ve been leaked.

The ones hit hardest are independent filmmakers – while giant film agencies handle everything from security to in-depth promotion and data analytics, many are not so lucky. That’s the main demographic that Indee works with.

Enter the villain

Photo credit: Annoying Noises.

Of course, like any good movie, Indee’s story isn’t complete without a villain.

“Amazon was giving filmmakers a way to send their works to film festivals, but with a horrible video player,” says Sharan. “We decided to build our own version with more of a focus on the beauty of the film.”

They built out a product that would let multiple judges and critics view the same film safely, no matter where they were. It picked up as festivals signed on, which got Amazon a little scared. After all, the service was one of the best ways Amazon has to get data on independent films for its Prime streaming service, Sharan explains.

Overnight, the ecommerce giant signed an exclusivity clause with multiple festivals and Indee lost all of its customers within the next 24 hours.

Following the clues

What indie filmmakers want