For years, Anita Verma-Lallian has honed her dealmaking skills as founder and CEO of Arizona Land Consulting, selling land to developers across the Valley. But in 2023, Verma-Lallian embarked a new venture when she founded Camelback Productions — a film production company seeking to create films that highlight South Asian voices.
AZRE magazine sat down with Verma-Lallian to learn more about why she started the company, the success she has experienced so far, and the similarities between the land and film industries.
The following responses have been edited for clarity and length.
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AZRE: Tell us about Camelback Productions.
Anita Verma-Lallian:We started Camelback Productions a couple years ago with the goal of bringing more film production to Arizona. There have been some incentives passed on the state level which make it more attractive to make movies here. With Arizona being so close to Los Angeles, it just makes sense to have more of that industry here.
I’m also South Asian, and our community is underrepresented in media, so I want to support South Asian content and bring that to the forefront.
AZRE: How do you uplift South Asian voices at Camelback Productions?
AVL:It’s about bringing in diversity throughout the whole chain of production, starting with scripts that are South Asian. We look at things that other studios may have passed on because the South Asian community is still seen as a new, unproven market. In certain instances, we’re coming in and funding projects ourselves to show that these are good stories that have an audience. If other studios aren’t going to do it, we’ll do it ourselves.
AZRE: What is your relationship with films?
AVL:I’ve always been a huge movie fanatic. I personally never wanted to be an actor myself, but I have a 13-year-old daughter who has been in the arts since she was five. It’s one of her passions too, and that was part of the inspiration for starting the company.
AZRE: Your movie, “Doin’ It,” premiered at the South by Southwest film festival this year. Can you talk more about the film?
AVL:The premiere happened in March of 2024, and “Doin’ It” will have a theatrical release in the first quarter of 2025 and then will be available to purchase and on streaming that year. We’ve been working on the film for close to two years now. I’ve been a fan of the main actor, Lilly Singh, for many years, and we met with her to understand her vision for the movie and what she was trying to do with the story.
It’s a comedy that pushes the boundaries of societal norms within our culture. I think it has a good message, and that’s what we were attracted to and are excited to see it come to life. Seeing the process of a project going from script all the way through post-production was definitely a learning experience.
AZRE: Was the film shot in Los Angeles?
AVL:We actually filmed in Toronto, where a surprising number of movies get made. They have amazing tax incentives, and our lead actor is from there, so that’s why we filmed there.
AZRE: What are your thoughts about the Valley becoming a place where more movies are filmed and produced?
AVL:The tax credits passed in Arizona are a step in the right direction. But from my experience, they’re still not as competitive as places such as New Mexico or Canada. Arizona starts off at a 15% tax credit, and Toronto gave us almost 35%.
The other challenge for Arizona is that we don’t have the infrastructure in place quite yet. Even for things like camera crews, we were going to have to fly them in from Los Angeles and other places if we wanted to film in the Valley, and that adds to your budget and makes it hard to pick Arizona. I really wanted to shoot the movie in Arizona, but our incentives aren’t strong enough yet.
I think tax incentives will get there, and we’ve been talking to the governor’s office about the different things we can do. Hopefully, it’s a matter of time and we can start seeing more production coming to the Valley.
AZRE: Is there any overlap between the skills you use at Arizona Land Consulting and Camelback Productions?
AVL:Oddly, there are a lot of similarities. When you’re making a movie, you’re looking at what the budget is, what the genre of the film is and how well those types of films perform at the box office. You’re looking at the opportunity from that standpoint and decide if it’s a good investment or not. I do the same thing when we’re looking at buying a piece of land.
Even though there is overlap between the two, the industries are quite different. The film business can be unpredictable and high risk, whereas with real estate you know what asset you’re getting when you buy it. But overall, both require identifying and assessing opportunities.
