Written By- Shailesh Narwade
Jayanti – a film on the anti-caste ideas of Jotiba Phule, Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj and Dr B R Ambedkar – has started crowdfunding on Crowdera to seek people’s support for its completion. The film is about a youth’s reformation journey. It’s shooting and editing has been completed and the makers are going to start its post-production in September 2020.
Jayanti’s writer-director Shailesh Narwade said,”It is difficultfor an independent filmmaker to find a producer for such kind of films. And it becomes tougher especially when the film talks about caste.”
The project was rolled out in October 2019 after a few like-minded friends decided to fund it. This two-hour feature film in Marathi, with English subtitles, was slated to release in April 2020 but late funding had delayed its shooting early this year. And then the lockdown brought the work to a complete halt. The team is now gearing up to take the project to its completion.
“There is a huge gap of this kind of content. Only a few filmmaker are making such films. We met several people, who liked the projectbut not all of them are capable of funding it. We need support from like-minded people in India and abroad,” Shailesh added.
To its advantage, the film is not on paper. A team of experts and celebrities is involved with this ambitious film. Internationally acclaimed music director Mangesh Dhakde, lyricist Guru Thakur, singer Javed Ali, cinematographer Yogesh Koli, sound recordist Ashish Shinde and makeup designer Santosh Gilbile are part of this project. Well-known actors such as Milind Shinde, Kishor Kadam, Paddy Kamble, Anjali Joglekar and Amar Upadhyay have played the lead roles.
“Half of the journey has already been completed. Now we want to reach the destination,” said Shailesh, who is a former media professional. He is also a playwright, whose recent Hindi play ‘Maseeha’ was invited to IPTA’s national festival in October 2018. His another Marathi film ‘Roommates’ – a crime thriller – will soon be available on an OTT platform.
Veteran filmmaker Shyam Benegal’s ‘Manthan’ was the best example of crowdfunded film in India. Bollywood filmmaker Rajat Kapoor has also crowdfunded for his next film on Crowdera recently. Filmmaker Jyoti Nisha successfully raised over Rs 20 lakh for her documentary ‘Ambedkar: Then and Now’ on another crowdfunding platform.
Very few filmmakers in India have explored this way of raising funds, though it is a popular platform in the western countries. In India, people are gradually getting accustomed to this platformalso as some of the creative projectshave successfully raised funds.
The makers of Jayantiare crowdfunding for Rs 1.5 crore. They immediately need Rs 60 lakh to complete post-production and to pay for the expenses already incurred on production. Remaining funds will be used for distribution. The campaign on gocrowdera.comhas so far raised around Rs 9.5 lakh.
“We should support the films that wereally want to see. People are contributing forJayanti because of its content, while some are finding it as an opportunity to Payback to Society. We are hopeful that more people will come forward to make this film a reality,” Shailesh concluded.
You can contribute to this film on: www.gocrowdera.com/jayantiafilm
You can write to film’s writer-director Shailesh Narwade on sbnarwade@gmail.com
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