Telugu OTT platform aha recently announced an exciting new initiative for young creators all over the country under the aha Creators’ Summit initiative. The Summit is a year-long initiative that aims to form a relationship between aha and the creative community, eventually collaborating with them to create content for aha.
Last month, aha announced the Hyderabad chapter of aha Creators’ Summit in partnership with Annapurna College of Film and Media (previously called AISFM). This marks a unique collaboration between the two organisations and brings together their common vision of nurturing young talent and encouraging passionate creators.
In a first-of-its-kind partnership, as part of the Summit, aha will work closely with Annapurna College of Film and Media to initiate unique activities like Master Classes, Creators’ Lab and the development of new concepts for originals and shorts amongst other initiatives that will go on for the full year.
During a webinar on September 14, Allu Arvind, Promoter, aha and Akkineni Nagarjuna, Producer, Actor and Chairperson, Annapurna College of Film and Media, announced this partnership to the students and alumni of the institution. As a first step towards this collaboration, Allu Arvind announced the premiere of five shorts made by the alumni of Annapurna College of Film and Media on aha. The films will release on October 16.
Speaking about the collaboration, Allu Arvind says: “In today’s world, OTT platforms are a game-changer in the entertainment industry worldwide! Also, we are increasingly seeing cinema, music and TV shows converging into a single entertainment platform, bringing custom-suited content that caters to diverse tastes and aha offers a mix that gives every member of the family a show/movie they would enjoy. The aha Creators’ Summit is an initiative for us to build a strong relationship with the young creators’ community. It’s with great pleasure that we have kick-started such a collaboration in Hyderabad with Annapurna College of Film and Media. This will give us access to some of the best young minds who will help us in shaping the future slate for aha and we are very excited.”
Commenting on the vision behind the content alliance, National Award-winning Producer, Actor and Chair-person, Annapurna College of Film and Media, Akkineni Nagarjuna added, “There are a lot of talented professionals who want to learn filmmaking and require mentoring by industry experts. To get this break, they need to have the basics and something to showcase. The concept of Graduation (Grad) Films is typical for film education and was introduced at Annapurna College about 9 years ago. We wanted students to get exposed to all the crafts of filmmaking – scriptwriting, production, direction, cinematography, editing and sound. The idea is to also ensure they learn how to commercialise it using effective marketing strategies. Our Student Grad Films are between 12 to 40 minutes long and have been successfully showcased in many film festivals receiving national and international recognition. However, this is the first time we are going to leverage an OTT platform to help showcase their talent to a wider audience. We are very happy to collaborate with aha headed by their Chairman Mr Allu Aravind. The CEO, Mr Ajit Thakur has come forward to provide masterclasses and mentorship for our students – to help them understand audiences, create enjoyable content and appreciate what drives creative success.”
