Navi Mumbai: It takes 50,000 phone calls to make a successful college fest

There’s just a month to go for the city’s biggest undergraduate film festival — Frames — and the managing core committee has been busy finalising a list of celebrities, who are likely to judge more than 100 entries in different categories from across the world.

The three-day Frames film festival of SIES College, Nerul, which is in its 11th successful year, is being executed by the second year mass media students of the college; right from bringing in sponsorship to arranging logistics of visiting Bollywood stars. It will be held from February 6 to 8.

And it’s not been easy for these collegians. They started the preparations around eight months in advance by first forming a core committee. “The most difficult job is to bring sponsors for the event,” says Arunima Kumar, chairperson of the core committee.

Once the committee was formed, responsibilities were assigned to the members. Formed in July 2013, the marketing team has since then been working continuously to bring sponsorships for the film fest. “We got a lot of support from our seniors and we also took help from juniors,” says Kartik Prande, vice-chairperson of the core committee.

Nabia Suhail and Anurag Naik, second year students of mass media, who are heading the marketing department, recall the initial months when they met or called people for sponsoring the event. He adds, “We took help from our juniors and asked them to make at least 30 calls each day to find a positive client.”

In total, the 20-member team in the last seven months called around 50,000 commercial units, ranging from corporate houses to small business groups. “There were no results in the initial months; people thought we were amateur to handle business calls. But gradually we learnt the art of approaching people for sponsorship,” says Suhail.

The budget of the film festival is around Rs3.5 lakh this time, and a major chunk has been arranged. “We first used our own contacts and then took help from others,” adds Kumar.

Everyday the core committee held a meeting and the progress was discussed. “Every department reports the chairperson of the core committee about the development. And, further course of action is decided,” says Kumar.

In the last two weeks before the fest, the marketing team directly visits the potential customers. “Now, we go around in local areas to find a potential sponsorship on barter system,” says Suhail.