I

f there is one thing teen romance flick Janji Hati (Heart Promise) proves is that anyone can be a movie star.

The film, based on a teenlit novel of the same title, is the first production of students from the Rudi Soedjarwo Joint and Pusdiklat Film Rumah Terindah filmmaking and acting course.

The author of the book, Elvira Natali, who has a knack for unrequited love stories and has also produced a second novel, Return, plays female protagonist Amanda, who gets caught up in complicated relationships with brothers Leo (Guntur Nugraha) and Dava (Aliando Syarief).

Amanda and Dava meet on bad terms but later realize they have romantic feelings for each other.

Director Otoy Witoyo and screenwriter Anggi Septiono have maintained the storyline of the novel, which was reprinted for the fifth time this year following news that teen idol Aliando would be in the movie.

Aliando, who starred in Rudi'€™s Garuda di Dadaku 2 (Garuda on My Chest 2), is not just mere eye-candy to lure teenage viewers as he also contributes two songs to movie and sings one of them for the film'€™s soundtrack.

Other than the teen-idol gimmick, Janji Hati, which hit theaters on Feb. 5, doesn'€™t have much else to offer moviegoers, especially those familiar with Rudi'€™s previous movies.

However, it reminds us of Rudi'€™s debut film, Bintang Jatuh (Shooting Star), which introduced Dian Sastrowardoyo to film screens.

 It'€™s obvious that the movie is a graduation project for the cast and crew, including Elvira.

Elvira, who was also a student at Rumah Terindah, wrote the novel in four months during high school in Lampung. She is currently a marketing major at Prasetiya Mulya Business School in Jakarta.

Rudi, the film'€™s producer alongside Tyas Abiyoga said in an interview after a media screening on Tuesday that Janji Hati showed that anyone could realize their dreams of being in the film industry.

'€œI established Rumah Terindah with the purpose of going against the mainstream,'€ he said.

 '€œWhat we'€™re doing is feeding the industry with quality human resources who do not rely on their good looks or connections. Only those who can take the blow are allowed to stay.'€

 While putting everything at stake, Rudi and his team rolled out a different marketing strategy last year by promoting the cast on social media.

 At first, Elvira was cyber-bullied by Aliando'€™s fans through her Twitter account. However, her follower numbers steadily grew from 3,000 to nearly 30,000 and she now has her own fan club.

Rudi was unapologetic while acknowledging that the movie was not up to his personal standard, saying he intentionally left in technical flaws in the editing process as a learning tool for the crew and cast.

'€œThere are some unnecessary scenes in it that somehow teenagers feel relate to them, so we just left them in.'€

Rudi realized he made an unpopular move by sidestepping to the other side of entertainment industry.

'€œI have made many movies and I know how to make good ones. But after its release it will go to archives and after a while will be forgotten. Let'€™s just say that what I'€™m doing right now is reinventing myself by investing in human resources, changing the lives of the people involved.'€