Do you dream of the arc lights but don’t know your ways around showbiz?

Think you’ve got the script just right, or choreographed hot dance steps? Is your directorial dream still just a dream? Or have you penned lyrics to your own song and cut an album?

If you’re nodding yes to any of this, log on and register with Talentube. Work out your best lines and upload your video profile from wherever you are. And keep those fingers crossed.

Who knows? You could be among the first lot of 400 struggling showbiz aspirants who turn lucky this year. And soon, you could be hobnobbing with the likes of Mahesh Manjrekar, Sudhir Misra or Santosh Sivan, vouches Vinod G. Nair, public relations honcho and man of many avatars.

Nair, along with his four ideator-and-investor friends in India and the US, has built what he says is the gateway to the entertainment world. Talentube, he claims, will create the artist and content pool for a long list of dream ventures in Bollywood, Bengali, Malayalam and Punjabi films, television serials, and music and video albums.

Mr Nair, MD and Co-Founder of Talentube Entertainment P Ltd, is confident that they will be “the largest community of talent ever, the largest producers of IP [intellectual property] straddling film genres”.

Talentube sees itself churning out 400 artists in the first year and 600 or so more over the next couple of years.

For a fee of Rs 1,500, candidates can pitch for any of the three roles in the entertainment line and enter a three-year contract with Talentube to nurture their careers. Talentube, in turn, puts the promising ones through five levels of anonymous, no names-numbers only auditions until the real talent reaches the director. Additionally, it picks up the tabs for all pre-shooting expenses – travel, grooming, training, food and stay during the audition schedule.

This, he says, eliminates the possibility of a casting couch. Women aspirants can hold their meetings with their family around.

Talentube will have several revenue streams – content, satellite rights for the films it makes, subscriptions from artists, corporate tie-ups and sponsorships, and marketing their IP through ring tones. There aren’t numbers for any of this yet from Nair, who is also CMD of the Rs 100-crore public relations Clea group.

EUREKA MOMENT

Nair’s eureka moment came when he, in India, and his friend Rakesh Sreekumar, in the US, brainstormed over a Skype chat eight years ago. The idea was in cold storage till much later, Nair and some more friends got serious about de-freezing it.

In 2010, he says, “We wanted to get off the mark in three months but didn't find a fund or promoter for over two years. Mention Bollywood and 90 per cent of investors of any hue run away.”

But friends in filmdom fanned the idea and Vinod Nair, Rakesh Sreekumar and Ravi Nagpurkar got busy.

Before long, these boys from IITs and American B-schools had put up their venture with a name inspired by YouTube. Mr Amit Dalmia (iBall, Portico New York, 109F, DC Designs, Creative Global, Viaton Energy and Bedbathmore.com) and Mr Neeraj Goenka (co-creator of Texport Garments and luxury lifestyle brand Robert Graham) built two funding streams to bring in $12 million (around Rs 60 crore); “I get excited every time the rupee devalues.”) Then they roped in founder-CEO of the large mobile community GupShup, Mr Beerud Sheth, as Adviser.

DISRUPTIVE GAME

At a time start-ups are ideating cooler stuff like e-gardens, e-garments and e-commerce ventures, why do Nair and friends want to get into the murky, insular, star-stricken Bollywood business at all?

That's exactly why we want to do it, says Nair, who at age 26 became Clea PR's youngest CEO. “We want to be disruptive. In fact, anything to do with Bollywood is investment-heavy. We need to shout from the top of roofs.”

An advertising campaign with their brand name Mauka [opportunity] is under way.

Talentube's films will not exceed Rs 10 crore in budget. And “there may come a time when we can go to a director and buy two roles in a good film.”

Also, using the road less travelled is something of a habit to Nair. Back in 2000, he had produced and promoted a Boy Band music group;, writes lyrics for them and for Bollywood films. He has even directed an unreleased film for Zee TV, started the signature Nair's Kitchen eatery; and is now writing his first thriller novel, set in India.

“Don't call us a production house; we are not offering anyone a cameo for a dying brother's role,” cautions Nair. “We create the opportunity; and talent vies for a place. We are there for strugglers and aspirants – who are 90 per cent of industry – who are seeking producers and not getting the right break.”

He says, “Nobody does this kind of a thing. Now the artists stand under the sun without being seen or heard. They come from small, remote places, hoping to make it big one day. They spend Rs 30,000-40,000 in a strange big city on existence and contacts.” Talentube should bring some order and dignity to the industry and take away the middlemen.

Talentube may talk of producing jobs for a lakh of people but will keep its own team thin, with 25-30 employees for two years. Some jobs, even those of assistant directors and judges for the auditions, are already being outsourced to veterans.

As we speak, the Manjrekar film has been scripted and is ready to go live.

Sudhir Misra is said to be hunting for a good script for the Talentube venture. And a Sivan story line is ready. Lights, camera, action, then.

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