Filmmaker Mahesh Kumar Kathi proclaims his next, "Pesarattu is a film of the people, by the people, for the people." They say cinema is a collaborative art and Mahesh is taking that principle to a whole new level. "Audiences are the producers of my film. It is Tollywood's first crowd funded film, financed by interested public who want to see it," says Mahesh, who apparently found all the producers online.

"I put up the synopsis of the story online and asked interested people to chip in. We raised `50 lakh needed to make the film through contributions ranging from Rs 50,000 to Rs 12, 00,000 from 12 producers," elaborates Mahesh, adding that a wedding planning company provided the set design.Admittedly the filmmaker found all his actors, technicians and crew also online.

"We have 34 new actors making their debut with this film and I found all of them through my social networking site. Lead actors also got in touch with me after stumbling on my post," shares Mahesh who has only paid actress Nikitha Narayan "a token payment" for the movie. "The film is based on the principles of collective ownership and mutual cooperation and everyone who came on board believed in the idea of cooperative filmmaking," says actor Nandu, who plays Nikitha's fiance in the movie.

The film tells the story of a citybred commitment phobic college passout Bhavana. "I know a lot of friends who are commitment-phobic and that's what drew me when about the character. It's a very contemporary character that will strike a chord with the audiences," says Nikitha adding, "The whole film plays out on the day of the engagement."