How a comedy of errors resulted in publicising filmmaker Arun Kanth’s ‘AK Online’ mobile app

Arun Kanth woke up to one of the most unusual days in his life yesterday. The independent filmmaker had launched his mobile application AK Online only three months ago and suddenly, there was a barrage of downloads. “I had not done anything to publicise it too,” says the 33-year-old, who is based in Coimbatore. He was puzzled. “There was a download every two minutes or so,” he says. A majority of them were from North India.

What could have possibly happened? “I was breaking my head over it through the day,” he says. Arun finally messaged one of the downloaders, asking him how he heard about the app. “He sent me a photo of a newspaper clipping,” laughs Arun. The news item was about Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal launching the Arvind Kejriwal app, or the AK app in short. That explained it.

“They thought they were downloading his app. Mine stands for Art and Knowledge and people can learn to make films on it. It has filmmaking tutorials from the world over,” says Arun. On his app, Arun has put out an announcement for a shortfilm contest on Saving Water, open for every one. “People who downloaded it even submitted applications for the contest,” he says. “One person wrote in saying ‘Nice initiative, CM’.”

Filmmaker Arun Kanth

The Arvind Kejriwal app was launched on October 16 and is available in English and Hindi. Apart from exclusive access to Kejriwal’s public events and Live TV, the app is also an effort to tackle fake news on the Aam Aadmi Party.

On a serious note, Arun says that people are also going to the ‘Contact’ section on his app and sending him complaints that they thought were being sent to the Delhi chief minister. “A user wrote in, asking for late license renewal penalty to be withdrawn,” says Arun, adding that he continues to get complaints that are meant to be submitted to Kejriwal. He hopes complainants become aware that they are on the wrong platform. “I got four downloads during this conversation alone,” he says.

Arun, whose last release was the comedy romance Goko Mako, plans to start shooting his next, titled Rivet, in January next year.