The big-hearted mob

The world’s first animation film in Sanskrit, Punyakoti , is currently under production. Based on a much-loved folksong from Karnataka about a cow that speaks the truth at all times, the film has music by the legendary composer Ilaiyaraaja. Director Ravi Shankar V had earlier published a picture-book on Punyakoti and held exhibitions as well. Yet, his dream film project fell short of ₹40 lakh. That’s when he turned to Wishberry, a crowd-funding platform where people from all walks of life can contribute as little as ₹500 towards any art project they are passionate about. The required funds trickled in steadily, and Punyakoti is readying for release next year.

“We took the crowd-funding route as it was difficult finding producers for a niche film like this, where returns are not predictable,” says Ravi Shankar.

Raising small amounts of money from a large number of people, crowd-funding platforms like Wishberry are now coming to the aid of theatre artistes, filmmakers, musicians and anyone in the creative space in need of funds. “While I was working on a project for my previous employer (McKinsey), I came across crowd-funding and the idea resonated with me. While people are not buying (art), many are willing to back artists and fund projects. I thought this was a good way to save art and culture,” says Anshulika Dubey, the COO of Wishberry.

Priyanka Agarwal and she co-founded the company in 2012 and have since raised ₹5 crore for 250 projects through 11,000 backers across the world. It works like this: An upcoming project and its funding pitch are uploaded on the Wishberry website. If the entire amount required is not raised within 60 days, then the appeal is taken down and any money collected until then is returned. On the other hand, if additional money is raised, then the project creator gets to use it for the project.

Globally, there are four established models for crowd-funding: rewards, equity, debt and social (namely, charity fundraising). The equity model is usually adopted by start-ups, giving the backers a stake in the company. Wishberry follows the rewards model, which has captured 60 per cent of the global market share in crowd-funding. Here, backers are rewarded with funky merchandise from the project or a VIP ticket for the premiere of the movie they are supporting, a mention in the credits, or perhaps an autographed DVD of the music album produced.

“When we were starting, I was told nobody in India gives money without expecting returns. That has been proved to be untrue,” says Dubey. Passion for a cause can get people to loosen their purse strings. As was done by Samir Chabukswar, CEO of design firm Yug Design.

He has contributed ₹4 lakh towards the Punyakoti animation film, knowing fully well that there will be no financial returns. “As designers, we are in a niche field. Someone trying to make a film in Sanskrit resonated with our cause. Sanskrit is a language we should all be proud of. And we believe in participating in any related effort,” he says. Shankar points out that money is not the only payoff in crowd-funding. Your ideas also get validated when you choose the crowd-funding route, which does not happen when you choose conventional funding routes, he says.

And that is something Kalyani Khona, matchmaker for people with disability, would readily agree with. Her pitch was for ₹5 lakh to launch Loveability, a matchmaking app for the disabled. She has already raised over ₹6 lakh well ahead of the campaign’s deadline.

“Matrimony for people with disability is very challenging and I wanted everyone who understands the problem to come together and have equal ownership in changing the situation. Crowd-funding makes you accountable to the people who have backed you, which leads to faster execution as well,” says Khona.

The entire process also doubles as an effective marketing and branding strategy, which is an added bonus that no other funding process provides, she points out.

In January this year, Wishberry completed its seed funding round worth ₹4 crore, co-led by Google India MD Rajan Anandan and software think-tank iSPIRT’s Sharad Sharma.

While projects ranging from films to food and art to product design are tasting success with Wishberry, the company itself is yet to break even. It charges 10 per cent of the money raised as commission, while its costs include maintaining and updating the website, investment in technology, staffing needs and so on.

“I wouldn’t say that our product has cracked the market. Crowd-funding is not a developed industry yet. We have to crack how people interact with a crowd-funding platform. And we need to coach people on how to pitch their product,” says Dubey.

And yes, soon there will be an app for it too, from Wishberry.

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