Crowd funding a new, upcoming filmmaker’s way to success

PANAJI: Crowds may not always be a problem; in fact, they just may be the answer to many problems faced by filmmakers born without godfathers or silver spoons. Pioneers in crowd funding, directors Sanjay Suri, Sarthak Dasgupta and Bikas Mishra shed light on how this new phenomenon is transforming film at the open forum session at the Inox courtyard as part of the international film festival of India (Iffi) on Monday.
“Crowd funding is a collaboration of people contributing money to finance a project,” says director and actor Sanjay Suri, whose crowd-funded film ‘I AM’ bagged two national awards. “The government in a way is a great example of crowd funding when people pay taxes to help run a country,” he jokes.
“To me, crowd funding is beyond just collecting funds. It is a way of engaging with the people. People involved in the project become hotspots for dissemination of information. It can be used as an effective marketing tool,” says director Dasgupta, whose film ‘The great Indian butterfly’ was also funded by people using social networking sites.
“It is about reengaging people who otherwise don’t have any platform to bring their projects into existence,” says Dasgupta. Suri highlighted the importance of seeing the interaction with the funders through. “You need energy to sustain the interaction to improve accountability by giving regular updates of what has been achieved,” says Suri. Stressing the need to have a long-term view if one wants to be trusted, Dasgupta says filmmakers should consider sharing profits with participants of the crowd funding if it does well.

PANAJI: Crowds may not always be a problem; in fact, they just may be the answer to many problems faced by filmmakers born without godfathers or silver spoons. Pioneers in crowd funding, directors Sanjay Suri, Sarthak Dasgupta and Bikas Mishra shed light on how this new phenomenon is transforming film at the open forum session at the Inox courtyard as part of the international film festival of India (Iffi) on Monday.

“Crowd funding is a collaboration of people contributing money to finance a project,” says director and actor Sanjay Suri, whose crowd-funded film ‘I AM’ bagged two national awards. “The government in a way is a great example of crowd funding when people pay taxes to help run a country,” he jokes.

“To me, crowd funding is beyond just collecting funds. It is a way of engaging with the people. People involved in the project become hotspots for dissemination of information. It can be used as an effective marketing tool,” says director Dasgupta, whose film ‘The great Indian butterfly’ was also funded by people using social networking sites.

“It is about reengaging people who otherwise don’t have any platform to bring their projects into existence,” says Dasgupta. Suri highlighted the importance of seeing the interaction with the funders through. “You need energy to sustain the interaction to improve accountability by giving regular updates of what has been achieved,” says Suri. Stressing the need to have a long-term view if one wants to be trusted, Dasgupta says filmmakers should consider sharing profits with participants of the crowd funding if it does well.

Credits: timesofindia

↑