The 'One Month' Post

It has been one month since we started raising funds for the 0ne Rupee Film. As you've read before, the campaign was started on the 25th of February at BYOFF, Puri. So, it's one month now, but not 30 days yet. In these 29 days, we've been through a lot. We got 8 articles on different newspapers, websites and blogs. We could successfully collect a sum of  INR 20,352.83 /- from more than 50 people. Although this is actually less than 10% of the minimum requirement but not a bad month really.

We are planning to start shoot in April, expectantly on the 14th and we'd start posting the novella on this blog from the 2nd. Again, if you feel like please share the posts with some basic information about this project on your blog. It'd help us in fund-raising. The more people is reached, the more fund is raised --- that is how it has been with crowd-funded projects always.
We have already come to know that some people are waiting for our promotional mails, press kits and the novella to start working in favour of this project. Sorry for the delay. We don't have a big team to get everything done in a super-organized way. Neither do we have any previous experience with these kinds of campaigns. We are learning, and what we've learnt till date is your support means a lot to us. That's the magic wand capable of doing wonders.

Thank you
We need you
Hope you'll stand by us

The Story Behind It

The truth is, I'm an idler. Although I was suffering from fever since we were back from Jadavpur and then something happened to my broadband connection (I was able to access internet using my dongle) they just don't stand up as good alibis for not posting on the blog since the 13th. It's been 9 days without writing. The feverish feel didn't even let me feel how fast time flies by when one is not working.

On the 19th evening (or may be night), in the month of February, at around 22:30 hrs. when I told Mr. Gurpal Singh "Gurpal ji, bahat ho gaya, abhi feature banani hai. Logon se ek ek rupiyaa leke suru karne ka socha hai [It has been enough, now I want to make a feature. I thought of starting it by putting a demand of one rupee to everyone]" Sriparna and Surya were there in front of Chakrateertha House, Puri, Orissa and I was quite astonished that I've actually said it. Before that, the idea was shared only once with Sriparna. Gurpal replied smilingly, like he does on every occasion, 'well, it's a great idea but is there anyone here who believes that you won't spend those one rupees on fags and boozes. See, there have been many people in the last years, coming up with ideas like these, collecting money for making film and afterwards none of them were traceable neither their films." --- This reply is what made me feel the necessity of starting this blog.

Four hours before that, I was sitting in a train, Howrah-Puri Duronto Express, at seat no.2. Beside me there was a guy on no.1, named Mr. Abhayanand Pathak. Sriparna, her mom and my mom were on Seat no. 3, 4 and 5. Between us there was the passage, so, I really had no option but to chat with this aged friend of mine when he started talking. Normally I don’t like explicitly religious people, but this time it was different. I felt a touch of wisdom in his words. He speaks a lot (I mean when he starts). Soon I discovered that he is one of the uncles of actor Vinay Pathak. So we talked a bit about Vinay’s performances in different films. Mr. Pathak said that he is a poet and he has two books to his creddit. So, we moved on to poetry and he said he is not a regular poet. He does not understand poetry; rather he tries to understand his religion and the world through his poems. I said, one doesn’t need to understand poetry really, that must be left to the academicians and critics. One must understand oneself to write or compose. Thus, philosophy and religion occupied the central thread of this conversation. Mr. A.N Pathak is one of those guys who say Hey Ram even while yawning. But I, somehow, did not really have any problem to carry on chatting with the Bihari Pandit Brahmin. I myself came to know that I ‘m a Kankubji Brahmin and not a Gaudiya one. Later on, he told me a story of a writer he met at Kurla station. He saw this guy in a bit untidy white shirt and black trousers, asking for one rupee from everyone on the platform. He came in to the waiting room, approached a man sitting next to Mr. Pathak. That man replied negative in a rudely manner and then turned to Mr. Pathak and said “Look at this poor guy. He has learnt this much English only to become an unconventional beggar. What’s becoming of this country”. Mr. Pathak did not reply. He silently started to follow this unconventional beggar and wanted to know the reason of his begging. The man told him that he is a writer. He has written a novel and now he is raising funds as he does not have enough money to publish it.





Yes, it’s an idea copied from somewhere else. I don’t know the name of this writer (I wish I had) but his way can prove to be fruitful for us. Till date, as a forum, LFEBF has produced 14 short films and two feature length films since 2008 out of which 12 shorts and two features were released in three compilations in three consecutive years. Do you know another forum in this country which has been this much consistent? Do you know a filmmaker in India who did take up no-budget as a serious method of film production before or by the year 2008? And when you visit the websites on so-called “Indian Independent Films and Filmmakers” how many times do you find mentions of these works there? Except producing a feature there’s another aim behind starting this fund-raising that is the process itself works as a campaign. This is a good form of no-budget promotion. But some of these so-called ‘devotees’ of “Indian Independent Film” are not even spending a single word on this project. Moreover, some of them are not even responding or replying while communicated with proper information. Where is the problem, can you tell me? Is it with Bengal? Is it with the forum? Or is it with the No-Budget method? I mean if everyone knows us or keeps on following us on facebook why do they become misers when it comes to sharing or writing something about some honest and off-the-track initiative?

Recently my latest film Memories… of a Dead Township (2012) was reviewed by Dr. Ian McCormick. Dr. McCormick also interviewed me via email and posted it to his blog. It’s something adequate to make us happy but we’d have been happier if the review was written or the interview was taken by some Bengali friend of ours, or at least by someone from India.



Thanks to Dr. Ian McCormick and everyone who’s reading, sharing, talking about this blog/project/initiative or the forum. Thanks to all the contributors who helped us reach the threshold of 19k within one month.



The truth is not only that I’m an idler but I belong to a community full of slackers and idlers I believe.

Trends

Depression is like cloud, you know what I mean if you are a sensitive man.
I came across another talented friend of mine today who seemed to be in a mood of a quarrel. These kinds of friends, see, I used to have a lot of them before. They will never do what they should have been doing. They would opt for a job at some office and curse the society for being so cruel. They'd curse their social and economic whereabouts for everything i.e the obstructions of becoming a popular artiste. But it's actually them who decided to sign the papers because they felt insecure at a point of time.
If you know what you are doing and who you are inside, is there a reason to get distracted like that, my friend? Lack of confidence and recognition can make feel a mediocre artiste that he is somebody like Rimbaud or Artaud, only if people could get it! Gosh!
What's there in recognition? If you are all for work why should you care at all? No matter what, just keep on working, use your brain and muscles and don't become jealous of anyone around.
Analyze, won't you?

Whatever, let's come to the point, if you are subscribed to the Facebook page you must have already come to know that the figure now stands at INR 12,908.15 /-  but what you don't know yet is that the highest individual contribution is Rs. 2500. Let's see who's going to break it and donate 5k for the first time.

Our first identified donor from another country is Ginnetta Correlli, a filmmaker friend. Her generosity was soon found in another filmmaker friend named Jason Marsh. We are thankful to them, we think their contributions would motivate others in other parts of the world too.

Be it Re.1 or Rs.1006 people are contributing for real. It's not one month yet since we started at BYOFF on the 25th of February and we're almost at 13k already. May we call it overwhelming, the response? Now we have a reason to be confident and announce, Yes, We'll Start Shooting this April. Now, whichever comes first, 20k or the first shoot, We'll start posting the story-line in the form of a novella, post by post, serially. Friends, asking again, do you have a blog where you can share the novella with some basic information on this project to help raise funds more effectively? --- We think we'll have MAM (Mad About Moviez) beside us. Are you too MAD, about MOVIEZ? Join hands, let's make it happen for the sake of the pure madness

Just Another Post

We were at Jadavpur University on the 10th and 11th at the stall of Guruchandali Magazine in the Sanskriti, 2012 (a festival organized by the students of engineering dept). The collection is now INR 7,807.15 /- But I'm not really feeling like writing anything else tonight. I'm tired. Moreover, I expected some comments or responses on the last post. OK, so it's clear now, no one is going to come forward and say, "here, I can help". It's more like, "you are fighting for your own cause. So, you shall face all that on your own". But what did I really ask? -- I just wanted some friends who can copy from this blog and paste on his own with some basic information on this initiative when I start posting the the story-line in the form of a novella.




Anyway, depression is natural, and it's only temporary. I believe I'll be able to keep on posting like before because I've gone through worse phases and those days have only encouraged me more.




Thanks

Promised Post: Explanation, Expectation, Resolution

I hope I don't need to explain the delay. If you are a reader of this blog you must have already guessed that I'm really not doing some office-work, neither do I have a secretary to do this job for me and just like you, I too have my own problems like depression etc. Today, I updated my old website today for the first time as well as an old blog after 2010. And now, I really don't have  much time. I'll have to leave soon for the city, I must be there by night. Anyway, let's come to the point.

Why is the minimum amount of contribution still Re.1 while I'm clearly stating that even more than Rs. 25 k is welcome from a single person?

My answer is: See, Firstly, Little Fish Eat Big Fish was initiated and founded in 2008 by me, Sriparna and Arupa da (Arupratan Ghosh). It's been quite a long time since then. In this period we've learnt a lot of things about films and also about other things. We have released three DVDs on our own. For various reasons we were compelled to set the minimum participatory contribution at Rs.100 (150-200 for other states). In kolkata till date spending 100Rs. for 5 short films is not an easy thing for all the students. Yes, there are students who can spend Rs.1000 everyday just for anything but they were not our target audience. People who found interest in our works mostly belong to middle and lower-middle class. What we used to do is, we first focused on recovering the production cost and once it is recovered we used to distribute digital copies for free to the people who could not afford spending 100.

Secondly, till date common people in Kolkata are not really that much interested about the independent efforts in film-medium (Well, basic reason behind this is the trash produced by rich kids and the idiotic school-goers who god knows why ever tried to make a film). Even those who are interested are not habituated to contribute to Independent films or filmmakers. This project looks forward to raise this habit. One rupee is nothing, it doesn't hurt. Most of the people use this very amount only to satisfy pushy beggars. The basic difference between us and the beggar is that we are providing them with a little piece of paper containing information regarding this project so that they can check back and verify or contribute more if they feel like. With the exchanged value of one rupee, the unique approach will surely help them remember the fact, we feel. It's not building houses in the air in the name of Independent filmmaking. Our fathers are not our producers and we still believe in the from-the-mass-to-the-mass structure.

I hope that's enough to clarify why the minimum amount is one rupee only. Now, why am I asking for more?

See, just like the ovum needs sperm to produce a new life, a film needs money to come to life. We believe that there are some friends of ours who like the way we are continuing against all odds. Some of them do receive a handsome paycheck at the end of every month. Among these friends there are some we know personally. They are film enthusiasts, fan of good literature, loves music too. It's a clear call to them, "Dear, it's the time for you to act. Maybe once you dreamt of making 'That Film' but then this job and all, and then you had to get married and now you raise a family... alright! No one is calling you to get out of your closet, but we are on the streets. Can you lend us your umbrella? We'd love to smell it and believe that you are still here with us."

For the next two days, me and Sriparna, we'll be available at JU (Jadavpur University) campus. You can come, meet, discuss with us about the film, contribute. For any assistance call me on 919883103809. When I get back from the city I'll start uploading the storyline little by little in the form of a novella. Can I expect you to just copy and paste that on your blog / web with some basic information about this project. That'll be of much help. Let us know.
Thanks

The Day after the National Award

Yesterday I followed some Kolkata based news channels. I was waiting to hear something which was not there. This morning I woke up and went through the whole news paper (which is quite unlikely of me as I have been trying to avoid this regular literature on murder, rape, politics, scams etc). I thought I found it when I saw this headline, "Six Bengalees are Honoured with National Award" but alas it was not even there. Everyone is covering almost everything of National Award, 2012 in Kolkata except mentioning Amlan Datta and his BOM. I found the film quite an extra-ordinary one. So, Happy Holi nevertheless, happy independent films!

I was too much tired last night. So I could not post in time again. I went off to bed with the 'Deer-nest' of dear Subhankar Das. But now I feel that I should have posted here instead of reading poetry. Some hot-headed hot-blooded truck drivers and their companions are celebrating Holi just underneath my balcony and I'm feeling like an America. I really want to Vietnamize or Afghanistanize them by bombing from above! I really don't know how to get to the point which I have promised to explain in this post. In fact by now I got this gut feeling that I'm not going to do it now and here. Pardon me, but it is not possible without piece of mind. I'll do it later tonight. By the way, the Facebook page for this project has not reached 250 yet. It's stuck again on 239 I believe. So, help us out if you can and check back later tonight to read the promised explanation of the slabs.

Thank you

An Update on Irregularity

My blog posts are becoming irregular. I thought of posting at least once everyday but that's quite an office-job really. I don't even know who reads this blog, yes, of course I find that view-counter to cross 40 everyday, but who are the readers? Are you one of them? I was preparing the list of contributors today, guess it'd be ready to upload by tomorrow. The morning started well when a new friend compared this project with Abraham's 'Amma Aryan'. I was like 'pardon me, but I'm not that great, are you mad etc'. Then in the afternoon the awesome-st incident till date happened when my bank notified me about two transactions. One is of 1.17 INR and the other one is of 1.12 INR. What I found to my astonishment is that there are no names attached. It was written "Global Remittance" where the names should have been. I still don't know who they are., but I guess these are the first two contributions from non-Indians via online transfer. People of other nationalities have already contributed to this project during BYOFF but this occurrences proved that even foreigners and NRIs can contribute just 1 Re via internet though it's not recommended for them. It is also not recommended for people who work at MNCs or own Credit cards etc. Why not? --- well, I'll write about that in my next post, probably tomorrow --- Why I'm recommending some people to contribute more than the specified minimum contribution of  Rupee 1 and in spite of that why still there is the option to donate as minimum as One Rupee

Depression

Cooking is a good way to handle depression. And when it comes to experiments Einstein comes second to me. I did not post anything last night. This post is actually delayed by almost 9 hours. It's just I was not feeling like writing anything. I wanted the page to reach 200 by 01:00 hours today. But every time everything can not be in favour of you. This simple truth made me depressed. As the Sun said hi, I posted an angry status on Facebook. I was angry with the useless 722 in my friendlist out of which I consider only 50 to be effective enough and 22 to be real friends. I went to the kitchen, started my day with experiments, came back, criticized Bengali poetry of the last decade and then all of a sudden I realized that I haven't invited all my friends to the page yet! :-D

These kinds of things keep on happening to me often. Like I have already promised four Bengali magazines and one publisher friend of mine to submit some works as soon as possible. Now I don't know whom to betray. Any way, almost without any effort we got 20 more likes today. It's not that depressing really. Moreover, we got another mention in the BYOFF coverage of Hindustan Times (Kolkata Edition). As soon as the HT server is ok I'll post it on the 'Media and Articles' page

We need a lot of support. I hope you to be there, standing by this project. Please help us reach 200 in another 15 hours. The day has started in a positive way, with 5 likes in the early hours. We are on 183 now. Another 17 is not a big deal really, isn't it?

4th Day Begins

At the end of 72 hours after the campaign was launched on Facebook, we were at 158. Not bad really. But I've seen more during my last film. When we stopped promoting the FB page of Memories... of a Dead Township, we were at 239. We didn't need more. But this time we do need. We need to cross even the 443 at LFEBF Official FB Page in order to make this project a success. Show your support, spread the word as far as possible friends. Can you make us reach 200 by the end of 96 hours? Today my article was published on MAM (Mad About Moviez, a Mumbai based forum of film enthusiasts). You can read it here or you can find it on the "Media & Articles" page of  this blog.

The 2nd thing is Paypal, god knows what they are doing with my PAN number. The verification process is not over yet even after such a long time. Once they are satisfied, there should be no problem anymore for you to donate via Paypal. Till then bear with us, and also with Paypal.

More updates are likely to be posted soon. Keep in touch

Things look positive

Yes, quite positive indeed. Today we got another 80 likes and by the end of 48 hours we are on 130. Moreover we got another media coverage. Washington Bangla Radio (USA) aka WBRI posted an article on the 0ne Rupee Film Project. You can read it here (any coverage of this project can be found on the tab called Media and Articles). Hopefully tomorrow I'll create another page named "Partners" in which I'll post contact details of our friends in different cities and states whom you can connect to for making a contribution.

More updates would be posted shortly. Keep an eye.
We need your support. Keep'em coming
Thanks

I launched the campaign on Facebook last night

I thought of doing it a bit later, but as soon as Hemant Kumar Gaba asked last evening I realized again, the importance of having a page on facebook. Add 10 of your friends to this page and I'll accept that as your one rupee, your contribution to this project. Of course, you can do both, I mean, send some bucks and share the word amongst your friends. Some people are asking "why isn't there a donate button on the page"! See friends I'm only an independent artiste and not a merchant. I don't have any idea about how to do that. If you know, please share your knowledge here by posting a comment. I'd be obliged

The response is quite good so far as I've reached 50 in less than 24 hours. Sriparna is helping me a lot like she always does. I was thinking to add her up as a co-director of the film. She has lived through the story just like me. The protagonist is a male character of course, but with her I think it'd be much easier to get rid of the headache that comes with art and décor. I'm expecting another 50 likes in the next 24 hours. Let's see. Help me as much as you can dear, I really need you beside me and don't forget to like the page if you haven't clicked the button yet. Thanks in advance.