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Crowd funding Way to go for new age filmmakers
Crowd-funding Way to go for new age filmmakers.Lauding the concept, Allani Sridhar, well known for his critically acclaimed film ‘Komaram Bheem’, says, “Telugu cinema has since long been in the hands of few people.
The concept of crowd-funding has been all over the place for a while. Not a new phenomenon in Indian cinema, acclaimed director Shyam Benegal introduced to us the idea way back in 1976 when he collected Rs 2 each from 5 lakh farmers of the Gujarat Milk Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation to create a marketing film – ‘Manthan’ – for them.
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And today, nearly four decades later, the concept has undergone a sea change. With the emergence of internet and social media and with the World Wide Web acting as an aggregator to collect funds, crowd-funding is turning out to be a way for aspiring filmmakers who are short on funds. Here’s why:
Democratisation
Lauding the concept, Allani Sridhar, well known for his critically acclaimed film ‘Komaram Bheem’, says, “Telugu cinema has since long been in the hands of few people. Crowd-funding will bring in more people into the industry and change the scene for better.”
His views are echoed by Naga Trinadh, Head of Marketing for ‘Barefoot To Goa’, a film that was funded by 238 people from 15 countries, with Trinadh being one of them. “Crowd-funding is a complete game changer in filmmaking, and is definitely a democratisation of movies in general,” he states.
The Freedom
Filmmaker Mahesh Kathi, whose recent release ‘Pesarattu’ was a crowd-funded venture shares that the biggest advantage of this process is the freedom a filmmaker gets. “We ask people to finance it only if they like the concept! So once they are part of the process, they know what they are in for,” says Mahesh, adding, “This totally cancels the case of a producer trying to dictate to a director what he/she wants. This will give a director the opportunity to translate the preconceived vision onto the screen.”
Same was the case with ‘Barefoot to Goa’. “After the film was made, we took the help of social media to give it a wide release. Many people came forward and we gathered Rs 50 lakh. We didn’t force anyone to donate. They all did it out of their own free will. In the end, it is now a film of the people, for the people and by the people,” informs Trinadh.
The Future
“The phenomenon cancels producers and distributors. Isn’t that a vision already?” says Trinadh proudly.The shared responsibility of producers will make money management an easy process, opines Mahesh. He adds, “Each of the investor should be involved in the process to make the work flow easier.”
By Pranita Jonnalagedda
