Indian short film gets minted as an NFT

Production house, Lekh-Haq, has announced that it has listed the world’s first Indian short film as a non-fungible token (NFT) on OpenSea, the biggest marketplace for NFTs. The short film titled, For Those That Watch Me Dream, has been minted on the blockchain with a base price of 0.3 ethereum (current level $674.53). However, individuals can bid higher.

In addition to the NFT and a digital version of the film, the highest bidder will get a ‘Collector’s Edition’ in a marble inlay box along with a DVD of the movie, hand painted poster of the film and a personalized note. The production house will retain rights to the movie.

Since blockchain is a decentralized authority, there is no central authority validating the claims. However, at the time of Lekh-Haq’s minting of the NFT, there were only two live-action films, Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah, and Lotawana, which were minted on the blockchain as NFTs on OpenSea and Rarible.

Directed by Terence-Hari Fernandes, the 20-minute film was listed during the first week of April, but the listing hasn’t received any offer yet.

“We do have ambitions that are sizeable, but if someone is able to buy it at $700-800 that would be good. However, we hope that as we scale up, the resale of collector’s edition of the film will be higher. What we are looking at is easy level entry for Indian investors. The idea is to sell the movie at around 0.3 ethererum and, tomorrow, it might have a resale value, which will be higher,” said Fernandes, who is the co-founder of the production house.

Lekh-Haq was also part of Indiarath’s first cohort of nine startups. Indiarath is India’s largest borderless incubator programme. The company has produced six short films, such as Doori, Starchild and Goodbye Love are available on Disney+ Hotstar.

In NFTs, 10-20% of royalty always stays with the original creator. Royalties allow NFT creators to earn a commission every time the asset is sold to a new person. The NFT space recently exploded with musicians and digital artists exploring the route to sell their creations in the form of collectibles or art. “There are two reasons why people buy collector’s item, whether physical or digital: hope that the market value will rise or because they will enjoy owning the item,” ,” said Ajeet Khurana, founder, Genezis Network.