Startup Interview Series – Raasta Studios

Ever wondered who are the creative minds behind T-Hub video campaigns? Hyderabad based Video Production House, Raasta Studios is bringing about a fresh perspective in shooting videos and making films. Telugu360 is in conversation with Naren Datta – COO of the startup who tells us about their Raasta…

Could you pitch for your startup?
Videos along with digital medium have changed the way an organization can carry out its marketing communications. It’s all about how creatively and innovatively we can engage the target audience. And we, at Raasta, are adept in understanding the communication requirements of an organization and cater through our services such as Corporate Films, Ad Films, Web Campaign Videos and Animation. Currently, our clientele includes Government bodies, Corporates, Educational Institutions, Startups, Advertising Agencies, Event Management Companies and NGO’s.

We launched verticals based on the type of service we render. We launched our first vertical, Amplify: India’s first video production house for event films. Virtual Raasta and Raasta TV are two more upcoming ones. Virtual Raasta would be producing Virtual Reality and 360 degree videos. Through Raasta TV we would like to cater to a wider audience by engaging them with entertaining and educative content.

Tell us more about Amplify
We noticed that there has been an increase in the number of conferences, corporate events, lifestyle events and of course India has become a hub for all the music concerts and gigs. While this is increasing, there is also a rise in demand for promotional content. Our journey eventually taught us that the MICE industry needs a different approach for promotion and also digital marketing.

Understanding the demand and also the need to approach event promotions in an innovative and impactful way, we launched Amplify: the first ever brand vertical in the country for event films.

Through, Amplify we are approaching the video production in a unique way for the MICE industry. We are not traditional video coverage people. We understand the purpose of the event, audience and design video campaigns such as promotional videos, teasers, glimpses video along with 360 degree videos and social media live streaming.

You have other verticals like Virtual Raasta and Raasta TV in the pipeline. Why are you taking this approach?
Digital Marketing and Social Media have almost eclipsed the traditional communication channels such as TVC and theatrical commercials. Lot of brands are partnering to produce content such as web series, short films, music videos etc to engage their customers. Raasta TV will be a platform through which we will be producing and publishing entertaining, engaging and educative content in association with various organizations.

On the other hand, Virtual Reality is emerging as the next level of medium to experience art and entertainment. Augmented reality is changing the way people can engage and interact with the content. Virtual Raasta is our exploration towards producing high quality engaging VR content that enables audience to experience the content in a more exciting way.

In your pre-production stage, how do you strike balance between developing concept and the budget?
Generally we come up with concepts based on the client requirements and present the budget. If they like the concept and are happy with the proposed budgets, we will go ahead and execute the same. In case the budgets are low, we look into alternate forms of production to execute; otherwise, we propose suitable concepts that can fit into the available budget. Of course, we do love to follow jugaad approach, when required.

In the entire process of Pre-Prod, Prod and Post Prod, which is the most challenging Phase?
In general all three are very important and challenging. Each of them needs attention to detail but depending on the type of the project one or two of the phases becomes relatively challenging. For example some ad films need a lot of pre-prod & prod, events have challenges majorly in production and policy videos demand a lot of post-prod. During the proposal phase we understand the characteristics of a project and allocate timeline and resources accordingly. Anyways, as we have exclusive department for pre, prod and post, we do quality check after each phase that ensures that the project gets what it takes from respective departments irrespective of its type.

Can you tell us about your work with Government of Telangana and Government of Andhra Pradesh?
With Government, we have worked with various departments such as IT& EC, ESD, Life Sciences etc. Majority of these works are targeted extensively towards attracting investments to the state and also towards educating the citizens of the state about the Government policies and its new initiatives. Eventually we would like to be a good partner to the Government in terms of designing engaging video campaigns on digital platforms as

We have plans to execute innovative video campaigns on the digital space for Governments. We believe that in this era of digital revolution, videos can be an effective way to communicate to the citizens, resulting an increase in the reach of Government schemes and policies. This can lead to increase in transparency and built trust between the citizens and the Governments.

Tell us about LFW experience

Lakme Fashion Week is one of the biggest fashion event in India. We were there to make promotions for the newly launched collection by an emerging Hyderabadi designer, Shashi Vangapalli. Surprisingly Susmitha Sen roped in as the Show Stopper that changed the overall scene but the challenge is to shoot the video in chaos of the event in a very short duration. To make it efficient and effective we have used new age gear like Gimbles and auto focus cinematic cameras. We did the whole production in gurrella filmmaking style with multiple camera setup as the event is dynamic. It was a great experience working with people like Susmitha Sen in a glitzy setting like LFW.

What is the significant change you see in Raasta since its inception?

What started as passionate exploration towards films and media is now a structured and sustainable business. This happened after changing our strategies on the go and constantly transforming the way we run.

To maintain a consistent quality we standardized some formats. To decrease the turn around time we made our workflow efficient. We adopted modern cameras, gear and techniques to create cinematic images economically. Understanding the need for creative and skilled talent we are also developing training programs.

Our office work culture has also evolved towards being more open, fun loving and professional. Overall, it was a roller coaster ride for us with lot of ups and downs. We learnt how to change our approach as per the business needs and innovate to provide high quality services at lower prices. The transition is still going on and we are planning to expand our services across the country, to start with.