Director Onir’s recently released film I Am could not have been made if not for the 400 people who responded to his Facebook campaign to help finance the project. Filmmaker Partho Sengupta has also sought funding from the crowd for his upcoming project Arunoday, a psychological thriller that deals with the trauma of child abuse in India.

While Arunoday has attracted over 80 crowd-funders on indiegogo.com, who have contributed around `4.5 lakh for the film, Onir managed to raise about one-third of the total budget through donations, most of them from a network of Facebook contacts. Actor Sandeep Mohan’s film Love, wrinkle-free has already been shot and the producers are using social media to market the film and get it out to a audience.
Should we see these projects as an acknowledgement of the power of social media sites to mobilise projects? Onir’s method can be a one-off case, but it does have the potential of becoming a popular way to fund films, campaigns and other projects.
Author Ahmed Faiyaz swears by the power of social media and finds Onir’s example to be quite interesting. Ahmed himself is in talks with a young filmmaker who wants to adapt one of his short stories for a short film and raise funds through social media. He explains, “Although it is challenging to deal with so many investors from diverse backgrounds, at the end of the day Onir managed to make the film with a stellar cast. I think this will be the way forward for filmmakers, musicians and even sportspersons, who find the purse-strings tight to fund their ventures.”
Ahmed narrates the story of a young British F1 driver, Justin Wilson, who put himself on the stock market in the UK with the help of a sports commentator and 900 shareholders forked up GB £500 each to get him a driving seat at Minardi F1 team in 2003. “This atleast got him out there and gave him a chance to compete in the most coveted driving championship following which he went on to drive for the Jaguar F1 team. I can see this working for a lot of talented people through Facebook,” he says.
Artist Jayesh Sachdev, founder of Emblem Studios, too has no doubts about its potential and finds it to be a novel and exciting way of gathering support. “The future of finance may well lie in social networking. It is an assembly of people that can identify and relate to a cause or thought. It encourages entrepreneurship, helps reduce the risks of production companies and allows youngsters to toy with different ideas. Crowd-sourcing is the future,” says Jayesh.
The biggest advantage of this medium is that you can approach people globally in a matter of few minutes. Mohnish Malhotra, who is involved in various online campaigns, says, “Technology has made the reach quicker than one could have ever imagined.”
It is also the most happening thing today and it is not just the youngsters who are targeted here, people from all age groups love to participate in different activities.
“If I need some help I resort to Facebook and receive thousands of responses and it is the most powerful new age tool. No longer are people dependent on conventional media. Be it financing movies or seeking support, it is the most ‘now’ way of life,” says designer Nisha Jamwal, who has done a lot of work through Facebook and raised awareness as well as funds for various projects for handicapped people and pets.