Crowdfunding comes with challenges and great opportunities

Pune: Karthik Ramakrishnan, an art lover, recently signed up for Amanda Palmer's crowdfunding website on her Patreon profile.
"I've followed her work through all these years, right from her eight-foot-bride days when she was a street statue to today...I realized I could actively contribute to her art work by simply pledging as little as $1 every time she posts a new song, video or piece of writing," he said.
Ramakrishnan is among the many connoisseurs of art and music in the country who believe crowdfunding is the way forward to promote talent, creativity and new ideas that need financial support. The concept is relatively new and old at the same time. Shyam Benegal's acclaimed film 'Manthan' was made in 1978 with over 5 lakh members of the Gujarat Milk Cooperatives giving Rs 2 each towards the production of the film.
The concept was later picked up by Onir in the year 2011 when he took to crowdfunding for his film 'I am' that went on to win a National Award in 2012. The film could raise around Rs 80 lakh from approximately 450 contributors.
Patrons have always felt motivated to lift such projects. "Earlier it was helping a street-side painter with getting the necessary requisites for his art. I used to buy water colour tubes and canvases for this old fellow who used to sit in Connaught Place Block-P. Now these things have come to being slightly more organised and patrons can choose from an array of artistes and projects online and pick up who they want to fund," says Sarath Tiwari, an IBM employee.
"As soon as I started earning, the first thing I did was to become a patron of two projects on Kickstarter. I had been following their work for more than five years and had read about the kind of struggle they were going through due to paucity of funds. Contributing to their art isn't more of a spiritual giving for me than financial," says Vaidehi De, an architect from Pune.
Satish Kataria, managing director and founder of Catapooolt, says, "We helped the film 'Manjunath' raise its post-release marketing funds. Crowdfunding involves proactive engagement of filmmakers with a set of audiences. It is a way of pre-selling your idea to the audience seeking help from the community," he said.
Ketto was formed by Varun Sheth, 'Rang De Basanti' actor Kunal Kapoor and Zaheer Adenwala. Says Varun, "We have observed an upward trend in the crowdfunding industry so far. The numbers speak for themselves. In 2014, we could raise Rs 1 crore while in 2015 the number touched Rs 20 crore."
Ketto has raised funds for documentary film 'Speed of Sun'. They are also associated with five theatre projects and Monica Dogra's music album that also went through its fair share of controversy in 2015.
Rajat Das started a crowdfunding platform called The Hotstart in January 2014. Soon after its conception for a film - Kalyanam - made by an SIMC student INR 50,000 was raised.
Hurdles ahead
The crowdfunding platforms are relatively new having an exposure of not more than 2-3 years. The typical Indian mindset of expecting something in return for any contribution made is the biggest obstacle. This makes engaging them a challenge.
"Another roadblock is that we are not perceptually inclined to ask for help, especially financial help. But over the years, we have seen people have started to open up. We have been able to make people understand what crowdfunding is. Now we just need to make it more specific to the Indian mindset," said Catapooolt's Satish Kataria.
About the future of crowdfunding in India, Das says, "It is a relatively new concept which is opening a whole new set of avenues for funding people with creative pursuits in mind. It gives young innovators the chance to showcase their ideas because of which their projects can see the light of the day."
On the flip side
Vasan Bala, who made his first full length feature, 'Peddlers', through independent crowdfunding from friends and family four years ago. He has a different view on the concept.
"Crowdfunding is over-used and people are weary of the concept now. The first properly crowdfunded movie was Onir's 'I Am' where he took sums in any denomination from the public and also gave proper credits. Today, because of crowdfunding the distribution and marketing costs have shot up and I don't think I will want to make a film using crowdfunding because a film can be made but releasing it is a tough task."
How it works
Satish Kataria said, "In the initial phase, the project manager reaches out to a wide audience through his own social network - online and offline. About 40% funding is received through friends and family. After this we, at our end, identify social media groups, do PR activities and try to conduct offline activities related to the project to engage and reach out to more audiences."
Varun Sheth puts a word of caution about the perception of crowdfunding. "It shouldn't be looked at as free money. The whole process requires a great deal of dedicated, motivated and concentrated effort. Giving back to the patrons is also an equally big part of the project."