Crowdfunding: Idea
worthy
Saumesh Thimbath
When everything from camera to
projection to promotion went the digital way, filmmaking has become a lot
easier and less troublesome. And gone are the days when a filmmaker had to run
pillar to post to get financing for his/her project.
Crowdfunding – pooling in finances from
interested parties – got a fillip with social media expanding at an
unimaginable pace. One bunch who finds themselves on the benefitting end are
the indie filmmakers, who are ‘independent’ because they try to say things that
a majority of producers wouldn’t even care to listen to. That is when social
media comes in to the indie filmmakers help with support from people who might
be geographically detached but closer in sensibility.
The trend is catching up in India too
and one of the early examples has been Onir’s ‘I Am’, where the director raised
the entire budget of the movie, which was 3 crores, from friends and online
contacts. ‘I Am’ went on to win two national awards.
In 2013, irked with production houses,
Kannada filmmaker Pawan Kumar, called for contributions for his next venture
‘Lucia’ through his Facebook account and blog. ‘Lucia’ was screened at the
London Indian Film Festival and left behind a trail of good critical and
audience reviews. Indie filmmaker in Malayalam, Sanal Kumar Sasidharan’s new
film, ‘Oralpokkam’ which stars Tamil poet Meena Kandasamy in a lead role, has
raised the budget of 30 lakhs through social media sites. The shooting of
‘Oralpokkam’ is underway in Kedarnath.
Owing to the novelty of the method, many
filmmakers look at crowd funding skeptically. Some sense a threat to their
ideas and for others the lack of any established models is source of concern.
But these fears, in all probability, are borne out of the unfamiliarity with a
novel platform. One factor behind the success of the digital and social media
platforms has been its mutual reinforcement and support. Moreover, the lack of
any established models make it a fertile field for creative experimentation. As
far as the entertainment industry is concerned, this looks like the way
forward.
