Animation is one medium that connects with everyone. It is known to appeal to kids and adults alike, and is also a medium that cuts through barriers of culture, beliefs; it spreads awareness regarding mental conditions and even sexual orientation for that matter!
But why do animated films have such a tremendous impact? The answer lies in content! For an animated film, content is king. One doesn’t need an item song or a top-notch celeb to sell the film. Animated films are purely built on imagination and plenty of teamwork. The process of making an animated film has a lot to do with substance and collaboration; just look at the credits roll of any animated film! Also, most animated movies stick to a clear universal message, a message whose aim is to make the world a better place.
Even while India is producing more movies than any other country, the industry for animated movies doesn’t even exist! The primary reason for this is that animated films are exorbitantly expensive, which is why most Indian animators, and students of animation, choose to crowdfund their film so it can see the light of day.
Back in 2016, a few students from NID crowdfunded Rs. 4.5 Lakhs for their animated film on environmental refugees, Wade. The film is set in Calcutta 2040, where the whole city is flooded beyond recognition post a drastic rise in sea level. This climate change results in the drowning of the Sundarbans, pushing its natives and resident tigers into the flooded city. The story revolves around these villagers’ fight for survival from the man-eater tigers. The students raised a Lakh within the first 15 minutes of their project going live, and in less than three days, they achieved their goal.
Another young animator narrated the story of a young man coming out to his father over lunch, through his film Maacher Jhol. On a mission to portray the plight of people from the LGBT community, Abishek Verma crowdfunded for Rs. 7 Lakhs for his hand-drawn 2D animated short film earlier this year.
Recently, DAR Motion Pictures got on-board as co-producers for Punyakoti, an animated crowdfunded film in Sanskrit. Punyakoti, based on a popular folk song from South India, crowdfunded Rs. 41 Lakhs from 270 people.
Animation is one of the most exciting forms of storytelling. And crowdfunding is giving opportunities to people to explore and take charge of their imagination and ideas, and pursue their awe-inspiring projects on their own terms!
Recently inorder to encourage students, Wishberry, a crowdfunding platform for creative projects, joined hands with National Institute of Design’s, Chitrakatha: International Student Animation Festival, to crowdfund animated student films from ‘Script2Screen’!