Behind the Scene, a one-of-its-kind app to streamline film production, launched in Malayalam cinema

Thiruvananathapuram natives Shameer Sharafudeen and Renjith Raghunathan launch an app to streamline film production

When Shameer Sharafudeen and Renjith Raghunathan sold their web development company in 2017, little did they imagine that they would end up creating something out-of-the-box for the film industry. They have launched Behind the Scene, a one-of-its-kind mobile app to streamline filmmaking. “There are applications mostly to help with the pre-production stage of film production. But our app is unique in that it covers all the three important stages of film production — pre-production, production and post-production,” says Shameer.

Shameer and Renjith have been working on the app from 2023 and tested its modules with the second season of the web series Kerala Crime Files last year. The first film that has fully made use of the app is Khalid Rahman’s sports drama, Alappuzha Gymkhana, set to release next month.

Other projects for which the app came handy are Padakkuthira headlined by Aju Varghese, Bha bha bha, starring Dileep, Vineeth Sreenivasan and Dhyan Sreenivasan and Mathew Thomas’ Night Riders. It is also being used in Nissam Basheer’s Prithviraj-starrer I, Nobody and a couple of movies that will be announced soon. “Anand Ekarshi [director of Aattam] has used it in his new short feature film that will do festival rounds,” Shameer adds.

Shameer and Renjith, both natives of Thiruvananthapuram, were classmates in school and later did post graduation in computer science. “My dream to become a filmmaker had to be kept on the back burner when education became the priority. We started the company, Colorz, in 2008, with Renjith handling the Kerala operations. I was managing the Dubai branch,” says Shameer, who created the software, Jukebox, for the Cable TV Operators Association in Kerala, as his MSc project, which was later implemented across the state by Asianet Satellite Communications and Siti Cable. 

Shameer recalls that he rarely used to watch movies until his love for cinema was kindled when he watched Ustad Hotel (2012) while living in Dubai. “By then we had both reached a saturation point running the company. So we sold it and I came back home with plans to become a filmmaker, while Renjith joined another company,” says Shameer. He worked as an assistant director and associate director in the films Y, Roy and Third Murder, made three short films and conceptualised advertisements and documentaries.

“It was those five years behind the camera that gave the idea for the app. I realised that cinema is indeed rocket science! It is a mess with no streamlining.”

The app can be accessed by the producer/production house, director and his team, production team, location manager, casting director, costume designer, art director, cinematographer, spot editor, editor, CG team and colorist.