Pay now, watch later

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His film is called Sunrise (Arunoday) but he shoots every night in the dark alleys of Mumbai. “It is only in the last scene that the sun rises and that explains the night shoots,” says Partho Sen-Gupta, an independent filmmaker who divides his time between Australia and Mumbai. There are many unique aspects about the psychological thriller which has child trafficking as its main theme but the most interesting is the way it owes its making to ‘crowdfunding’.
A concept that became popular some time ago in the film markets of Berlin, Cannes and Toronto in recession-hit Europe, crowdfunding has arrived in India too and is generating interest especially among directors like Partho who do not want to compromise on their vision simply to suit market demands. Simply put, the idea is to collect money from the public to make a film through one of the designated networking sites like Kickstarter, Indigogo or Wishberry. Typically, the filmmakers also use Facebook and Twitter to publicise their projects.
Partho is not exactly a child of the ‘FB generation’, so he had to learn the ways of the social media from scratch. After a lot of research, he chose Indigogo as his platform and set $35,000 as his target. After 120 days, 146 funders came forward to contribute $21,000. It was certainly not enough to make even an art film but it gave him the initial seed money and a lot of moral support. Some contributed as little as $10 while others chipped in with more and got in return incentives like a mention in the credits or the chance to accompany Partho to a film festival. NFDC and a French producer also came forward through the same channel and Partho now has a decent budget of `3.87 crore for an arthouse movie. “I feel it’s a great idea and it is catching on but it is a little difficult to implement in India,” says Partho.
Onir, who can be called the pioneer of crowdfunding in India, can’t agree more. “The system does not recognise films as art and the complicated tax structure in the country means that nearly half of what you collect will go towards taxes, employing tax consultants and lawyers. So if the idea is to collect a big sum for a movie, it is not advisable. It is a good platform, however, to raise a modest sum. But to me, what was important was I finally was able to make a film,” says Onir, whose I Am won a National award. It was also important for him to collaborate with so many people who not only contributed money but also their services free of cost as line producers, light boys and costume designers.
It all began when Onir posted a note about his intention of making a film on child abuse on Facebook. A young student, who was abused as a child, sent a cheque for `1,000 and then contributions poured in from nearly 400 of them who agreed with his vision. He was finally able to raise over a crore this way. Onir, however, feels that the tax structure needs to be made more filmmaker-friendly for crowdfunding to become a viable option for independent directors in India.
Down South, too, filmmakers, especially those who want to make socially relevant movies, are now trying out the crowdfunding model. Karthik Ravi, a techie-turned-filmmaker, who has been working as an associate director is currently trying to make his first Tamil feature film in this way. “Basically, I couldn’t find a producer even though it was a novel theme. There is a love story but I also want to focus on the agrarian scene, the problems that plague farmers and suggest solutions too. I am sure it will have commercial success but a producer may not appreciate this at the script level and there is no star value.”
He chose Indgogo, which is perhaps the most popular of crowdfunding sites, and kept posting updates. “The first copy of the movie is ready,” he says, thanks to 60 investors who donated amounts ranging from `50,000 to `5 lakh.
Pawan Kumar’s Lucia, which released last week and is the first crowdfunded Kannada film, reportedly collected `51 lakh in 27 days and then another `8 lakh for distribution and publicity. Pawan opted for this method because he knew that producers would certainly have asked for changes in the script. Interestingly, he has not shared too many details about the theme of the film with his investors — mostly Kannadigas based in the US who bought tickets ranging from $25 to $5,000 — who however are sure that it will be ‘good cinema’.
There have been failed attempts too. Telugu director Dakshin Shrinivas invited contributions for a small budget film through Facebook but dropped the idea when he was signed by a big production house to make a `12 crore film with Ram as hero. In Mollywood, V.G. Baburaj announced Cheddam as a film to be crowdfunded but is now looking for a producer after the response wasn’t too positive.
Talking of Malayalam films, it was perhaps the late John Abraham, whose friends went from house to house to collect money so that the gifted though penniless director could complete his award-winning film Amma Ariyan, who was the father of crowdfunding in India, long before social networks came into play.