With the help of the crowd

Pawan Kumar, the director of the successful film Lifeu Ishtene, is all set to show Sandalwood that pedigree and stars don’t matter.

The director plans to produce his second film Lucia using a concept called ‘crowd funding’.

When he had the script of Lucia ready, many producers were not open to an original script. This constant rejection pushed him to express his frustration in form of a blog.

Those who read it immediately reacted to it and suggestions started pouring in. “I was suddenly bombarded with emails, texts, pings, chat posts etc. Everyone came together to pour in ideas and solutions. Majority of them suggested to produce the film with the help of the audience,” he said.

The crowd funding concept has worked in the past, especially in the West. It basically revolves around the idea of a collective of people pooling in money to support initiatives of individuals or organisations. “This really got me wondering whether it would work in Kannada film industry.

That’s when I worked out the logistics and posted the budget of Rs 50 lakh on my website. And to my surprise, in just 27 days I achieved my target, thanks to Kannadigas across the world who pitched in and were open to the idea of bringing change in the industry,” he said.  
The website also had the movie tickets for sale.

“Initially, I assumed that people would prefer to buy movie tickets rather than contribute in bulk. But to my surprise, a large majority dropped in checks and only 45 tickets were sold,” he said. So what exactly is Lucia?

“It’s a story that’s definitely out-of-the-box, with a completely new style of narrative. Interestingly, none of the people who have invested their money know about the story because they are going to be a part of the audience after all,” he added. Considering people have put in their hard earned money without knowing the subject, Pawan does agree that he’s under a lot pressure.

Diganth, who had worked with him in his debut film, had come forward to act in this project, but due to unavailability of dates couldn’t sign the film. “We are now on the look out for fresh faces.

Over the last few weeks, we had over 250 people audition for Lucia and the hunt is still on. Hopefully, by next week we will narrow down on the cast,” he summed up.