Belagavi lad’s venture crowdfunded by males

Belagavi: Samarth Kadkol, a Belagavi lad learning acting in Mumbai, is leading the Gentlemen’s Project, a unique concept creating the world’s first crowdfunded short movie by men. It will be dedicated to women.
Gentlemen’s Project is an initiative started by the students of Whistling Woods International, a film and media school founded by well-known film director Subhash Ghai.Samarth is a student of this media school and has been living in Mumbai for the past few years, after completing his degree in Belagavi.
What makes the Gentlemen’s Project special is the funds required to complete the project will be collected by men, especially male students of different colleges. The team will shortly visit schools and colleges in Belagavi.
Students of the media school have already started campaigning for the project on social media, besides visiting educational institutions in various cities, including Belagavi, creating awareness about the importance of the project and collecting funds for male students. The motive of the project is to highlight social problems related to women, like gender inequality, through visual content, and influence the authorities to solve them, Samarth Kadkol told TOI.
“Initially, when we had a script for our short movie, we narrated it to many faculty members in our college and they appreciated it. This boosted our confidence and we were set to knock the doors of production houses. In April, we started a Facebook page named ‘The Gentlemen’s Project’. Within a week, we raised Rs 1 lakh only for the idea of uniting men and making a short movie on women. From an Uber driver to businessmen, we’ve seen contributions from all walks of life. As a part of brand awareness, we distributed a wristband with the tag of #imgentleman to all our male contributors,” Samarth said.
To date, the team has received around Rs 2.4 lakh which includes over 220 men contributing from across the country. It has managed to capture the attention of public figures like Subhash Ghai, Raghu, Rajiv, John Abraham, Raj Nayak, Salim Merchant, Pawan Kumar, Anil Kumble and Sunil Grover who have supported the project.
The team plans to launch the movie, starring Shweta Tripathi and Shashank Arora in November, and the profit will be used for social causes.