A film · video · media company — Hyderabad
THE DEN OF STORY TELLING
Films, web series, music and the world's first audience-decided cinema. Founded by maverick filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma — a place where every frame is an argument with the ordinary.
Latest from the Den
Happy World Saaree Day — the Saaree Girl song from the film SAAREE releases today at 5 PM. Wrap yourself.
Watch the song ↗
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The audience has voted. The chairs are filled.
Live results, open briefs and standing submissions for YOUR FILM — the first film in history where the ticket-buying audience decides every major creative chair.
Guruprasad
Watch the winning entry ↗Ram Charan
Gadicherla
Watch the winning entry ↗
Still open — the briefs have changed
The first tests were flawed, so they were rewritten. These are the briefs that count now.
Writers
A synopsis proves nothing. Write a full scene instead — a job interview conducted by an underworld Don to recruit a wannabe gangster.
Setting, language, cast size and location are yours to invent.
Submit a scene →Cinematographers
Shoot six subjects, cut as one reel:
- A close-up of a face
- A tree
- A road
- A vehicle
- An animal
- One shot of your own choosing
Judged on composition, lighting and angle. It is not about showing the subject — it is about how uniquely it is shown.
Submit a reel →Actors & Actresses
No photographs. A dialogue audition, in any language you are comfortable in:
I am not going to forget whoever is responsible for his death. No matter how long it takes, I am going to patiently find out. And once I get my hands on him, I am going to inflict such punishment on him that even hell can't think of something more painful.
The intensity must live in the eyes, the voice and the body. The camera is the person you are speaking to.
Submit an audition →Director's brief Scene: TEST
A warehouse. 40-year-old Suri hands 25-year-old Guru a pistol. Guru takes it with a shaking hand. Kneeling before them, head down, is Gupta, in his sixties.
Suri points at Gupta. "Kill him."
Guru looks at the gun. "Forget shooting, I never even held a gun before."
Suri laughs. "There's always a first time, and it's not as if you are participating in a shooting competition. All you have to do is put the gun on his forehead and shoot. Even a kid can do it."
Gupta mumbles, still looking down. "I'm sorry — can you please ask boss to forgive me?"
Guru walks around behind Gupta.
Suri stops him. "No. Not like that. In front. Look him in the eyes and shoot him."
Suri orders Gupta, "Look up. You deserve to die for cheating on our boss."
Trembling, the old man obeys — eyes dry, staring straight into Guru's. He mutters a rapid string of words that could have been a prayer.
Guru raises the gun, sickened by the sight of his own hand, and presses the barrel gently against the soft forehead. Gupta keeps staring, to unnerve him. Guru had never killed a man before — but this is the entrance test to the underworld.
Gupta whispers, "Don't torture me with the delay. Just shoot me."
Guru braces himself, shuts his eyes, and moves to press the trigger.
Suri snaps, "You have to keep your eyes open and look at the man you are killing."
Guru opens his eyes, looks into Gupta's, takes a deep breath, and shoots. The body is thrown backward.
Guru rubs his shoulder from the kick and looks to Suri for approval. Suri presses his shoulder in appreciation. "You passed the test."
Guru breaks into tears of gratitude. Suri hugs him to console him — even as Gupta's dead eyes stare at them both.
End of scene
You are free to change
- The approach to the scene
- Characterisations and suggested ages
- The location
- The number of characters
- The dialogue — as long as the content holds
Shoot in any language you like — Hindi, Telugu, the Telangana dialect, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi. You will not be judged on production values. This is only about how you interpret characters, extract performances, and assemble emotion through dialogue, sound, music and edit.
Open the scene with the credit:
TEST scene — by ______________ (director's name)
Music director's brief Song: Butterfly
A girl sings that she wants to live her life as free as a butterfly.
Compose a tune for that situation — with dummy lyrics, or the tune alone. Arrangement and production polish are not being marked. The only thing being listened for is newness in the sound and the tune.
The shortlists
Selected by the Den, then handed to the public. Every shortlisted film and composition went up on RGV Official for open voting.
Directors
11 of 419- Abhijith Sai Reddy Tetali Ballari
- Akilan Jagadeesan Chennai
- Ashwin Nair Madhusudhanan Hyderabad
- Guru Prasad Manari Hyderabad
- Murali Krishna Badisa Vijayawada
- Niranjan Nagaraja Ballari
- Shekar Rajappa Bengaluru
- Sudheer Akkaladevi Hyderabad
- Suryanarayana Raju Katari Visakhapatnam
- Venkatesh Yadav Nallavelli Kothapet
- Vijay Krishna Srikanth Kallam Hyderabad
Judge them on their unique interpretation of one shared brief — a criminal gang testing a new recruit — not on production values. These were made without budgets or industry support.
Music Directors
9 of 50+- Ajay Arasada Manikonda
- Charan Gadicherla Manikonda
- Jayasurya Duddukuri Nallakunta
- Kenneth Bezawada Guntur
- Navaneeth Manjith Deepa Trivandrum
- Pranav Badwe Mumbai
- Rakesh Panikela Hyderabad
- Siddharth Siddhu Hyderabad
- Sitaramaraju Mudunuri Rajahmundry
These are musical ideas, not finished masters. Listen for the interpretation of one shared theme — a song about a butterfly.
90%
of the ~150 films released per language each year fail
Those films failed because the audience did not want the story, the cast, or the choices the filmmakers made for them. Which proves that most of the time, filmmakers do not know what the audience wants.
The only one who knows what the audience wants is the audience. They are the ones who decide whether a film is a hit or a flop.
So for the first time in film history, the ticket-buying audience decides the lead actors, the director, the cinematographer, the music director, the lyricists and the dialogue writers. Remaining technical crew are chosen by the winning director.
You don't need to be a star's son or daughter. Let's kill nepotism.
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The Den is not an office. It is a mind, made visible.
Built on Ayn Rand's line from The Fountainhead — that the décor of a workplace should reflect the interior of the mind of the person who runs it — the Den is a beehive of talent and a hub for every form of storytelling.
Its walls carry the high points of a three-decade career, graffiti quotes, jungle-green corners and the faces of legends who passed through it. Anyone who walks in should understand the company subconsciously — without a word of introduction.
“The only thing that keeps going away from us is time. I want to squeeze every inch of the space and the time.” — Ram Gopal Varma, Founder
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Films directed & produced
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“Your Film” submissions
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Crafts cast by the audience
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Of refusing the formula
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YOUR FILM — cinema decided by the audience.
A first-of-its-kind concept where the audience chooses the writer, director, cinematographer, music director and the actors — by open submission and public vote.
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Submit
Send your scene, tune, showreel or audition through an open link.
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Shortlist
The Den's team picks the seven most distinctive voices in each craft.
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Audience Vote
Shortlisted work goes public. The most-liked artist wins the chair.
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Make the Film
The chosen five collaborate — and the audience's film gets made.
Writers
Judged not on a synopsis but on a full scene — setting, dialogue and intent. A Don interviews a wannabe gangster. Make it sing.
Upload your scene →Directors
Interpret characters and extract performances. Craft, not production value — the edit, the sound, the emotion.
Shoot the test scene →Cinematographers
A face, a tree, a road, a vehicle, an animal — it is not about showing the subject, but how uniquely it is shown.
Compile your shots →Music Directors
A girl singing that she wants to live as free as a butterfly. Newness of sound and tune is the only metric.
Send your tune →Actors
No photos. A dialogue audition — intensity in the eyes, the voice and the body. The camera is the person you talk to.
Record your audition →
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Selected work from the Den.
Keep scrolling — the reel rolls sideways ⟶
Psycho Thriller · 2024
SAAREE
A multilingual psycho thriller written & presented by Ram Gopal Varma. A saree, a gaze, an obsession.
Crime Saga
D COMPANY
The definitive Mumbai underworld chronicle — how a street gang became a corporation of crime.
Crime / Action
KHATRA (DANGEROUS)
India's first lesbian crime-action film. Love and gunfire share the same trigger.
Thriller
CLIMAX
A desert, a dream and a run toward stardom that keeps getting farther. Shot against the heat of Rajasthan.
Political Drama
LAKSHMI'S NTR
The untold final chapter of a legend — power, love and betrayal in the house of NTR.
+ Konda · Thriller · VyoohamYOUR FILM
COULD BE
NEXT.
Enter the Reel
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Latest transmissions from the Den.
SONG OUT
“Saaree Girl” — from the film SAAREE
Released on International Saree Day across Telugu, Hindi, Tamil & Malayalam.
PRESS MEET“Your Film” concept unveiling
The live announcement of audience-decided cinema, from the Den floor.
RAMUISMDialogues, rants & philosophy
Unfiltered conversations on cinema, fear, love and everything between.
TRAILER DROPSAAREE — official trailer
A psycho's obsession wrapped in six yards. Wrap yourself.
“I love powerful minds and beautiful frames. The Den is where the two collide on screen.”
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Submit your craft.
One open link. One audience. One chair with your name on it.
✓
Received. The Den is watching.
Your submission is in the pile. If it cuts through, you will hear from us before the vote goes live.