Guwahati, March 15: Remember Local Kung Fu, the low budget Assamese action-comedy film which became an Internet sensation and gained a cult following?
Four years after punching and kicking its way into people's hearts, the makers of the film are reaching out to audiences to help them complete the second installment of the film, Local Kung Fu 2.
Filmmaker Kenny Basumatary and his team have taken to Facebook and started a crowdfunding campaign on www.wishberry.in to raise Rs 8 lakh to complete the production of Local Kung Fu 2.
"Friends, we need your help to finish LKF 2 (Local Kung Fu 2). We're trying to raise Rs 8 lakh (for colour grading and sound design) from the public through a crowdfunding campaign. If 8,000 people contribute even Rs 100 each we can meet our target," a Facebook post by the team said.
The Local Kung Fu Facebook page mentioned that in six days 85 people had already contributed Rs 2,10,000. The movie is expected to release on April 19. Basumatary told The Telegraph that the total budget of the movie is nearly Rs 35 lakh.
"The first edition of the movie was cheap, out of majburi (compulsion). Now that our production house has gained some recognition and a very generous fan-base, we were thinking of working on a movie with a better storyline and premium production equipment. That is why we have set out with a higher target for us to achieve," Basumatary said. Local Kung Fu had a budget of only Rs 50,000.
"With our reputation, we can take a loan of Rs 8 lakh from banks, but we have opted for crowdfunding because we don't want the burden of the money post-release. Through crowdfunding, we can be connected with our fans in a better way and also serve our purpose," he said.
Basumatary said the shooting of the film is already done and the team is doing the finishing sound design and colour-grading work.
"If everything goes right, we are expecting to release the film by April 19," he said.
Despite becoming a hugely loved Assamese movie, the first film did not have a good run in the theatres. Local Kung Fu was only the second Assamese film to have a nationwide release when it was released by PVR Director's Rare in Gurgaon, New Delhi, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata and Pune. But the film hardly failed to earn back its distribution costs, primarily due to piracy.
"The last time I gave the movie to some friends for viewing and it went viral. This time, I am keeping the movie clips with myself. We will distribute to the multiplexes and cinema halls only and if some channel provides the right price, then to them. We will be contacting online entertainment companies such as Amazon and Netflix once the production is done," Basumatary said.
The second edition of the film will have the same "effortless comedy" like the first one, Basumatary said.
The sequel is a comic adaptation of Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors set against the backdrop of Guwahati and Tezpur.