Cracking the Question “How to Buy or Sell Film Rights”

Cracking the Question “How to Buy or Sell Film Rights”

With new-age filmmakers trying to make their mark in the entertainment industry, the indie scene is looking really bright, not only in India but all over the world. The positive aspect about opening up the doors to indie films is that the clichés are taken care of. More refreshing concepts with more interesting themes get explored. Film makers are not too scared to experiment a bit. And you have a wide array of exciting films to choose from. But the downfall is that too many films are getting made and some are finding it difficult to get them distributed. That’s where the question how to sell film rights becomes even more difficult. Finding the right network is absolutely crucial and you cannot really afford to take the wrong decision. Each one is trying to get their content out there so the competition is tougher than ever before. Knowing how to sell film rights is your million dollar question. 

There are different ways to sell or buy film rights. There are TV rights, Music rights, Theatrical rights and more. Film rights could be with the writer who writes the film, if he sells it completely to a producer then the film rights are owned by the producer. It is up to the producer if he wants to retain the film rights with him or if he wants to sell it to some company. If the music looks exciting enough then record labels buy the entire audio rights. Many films these days recover their production costs by simply selling your film rights. If you know how to sell film rights correctly, then half your worries are resolved.

Generally big production houses buy film rights for an overseas theatrical release. There are very few film acquisition companies in India, who are constantly looking to buy film rights of interesting projects. They then use their network to find a bigger audience and sell it in content markets worldwide!