This is for Real: A thriller flick based on Bitcoins

BANGALORE: After seeing success with thrillers such as Kahaani and Madras Café, Viacom18 is looking at making another thriller around the much talked-about virtual currency Bitcoin.
Viacom last week bought film rights for a thriller novel called God is a Gamer, which is based around the virtual currency and takes the reader through events based on reallife incidents in the Bitcoin world. The thriller includes incidents such as busting of drug dealing website called Silkroute, mystery around the Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto and why Wikileaks decided to start accepting Bitcoins for donation instead of other medium.

"God is Gamer has a global canvas, multiple threads run ning and a riveting suspense that holds you from the word go," said Ajith Andhare, COO, Viocom18 Motion Pictures."There is an opportunity to adapt the book into high paced intriguing thriller of a kind not yet seen in Hindi Cinema."

The author, Ravi Subramanian is a banker by the day and has already written six books, including If God was a Banker, The Bankster, Devil in Pinstripes and The Incredible Banker. Subramanian sees Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as the future of money, though he believes it'll take about 5 years for it to reach the critical mass in India. "I believe Bitcoin is a very convenient way to shop and to transfer money to any account around the world. Governments should work around a framework for the currency instead of putting restrictions on it," said Subramanian.

Subramanian is now receiving numerous partnership requests from Bitcoin industry players who want to use the book to reinvigorate the lost interest in the crypto currency. Tumkur, Karnataka-based Bitcoin company Unicoin, which offers Bitcoin wallets and a mechanism for people to transact in Bitcoin currency, has offered to give out Rs 200 worth of Bitcoin vouchers to anyone buying Subramanian's book.

The offer could soon be available through Flipkart and Amazon.Another person interested in partnering with the book is a 19-yearold entrepreneur Raunaq Vaisoha, who is about to launch his software-based point of sales terminal, which would be able to accept Bitcoins along with other traditional modes of payment. Raunaq, who is still a student at Mumbai's HR College of Commerce and Economics, wants to take the book to students across universities and tell them about Bitcoin's potential.

"In last one year, there has been a lot of negativity around Bitcoins," said Vaisoha, who plans to sell his PoS terminal for free and only charge less than half a percent in commission for each Bitcoin transaction.