Moolah for a mad thought, anyone?

When 26yearold Shree Kant Bohra the founder of a technologyoriented startup in Bangalore approached global crowdfunding website Indiegogo early this year it wasnrsquot to fund a project with a social cause It wasnrsquot to help generate electricity for the rural confines of a backward state Nor was it to stop human trafficking or make a movie on LGBT issues in India His reason to approach the website was a 30 x 30 inch board game called Politics of IndiaIllustration Amit BandreThere are two sets of cards in the Politics of India mdash the resource card which also includes lsquoissue cardsrsquo on issues like womenrsquos safety education and so on and the candidate card Each player is dealt 25 cards and they have to place a candidate and an issue card on each seat the issue card that is placed on the board is known only to the player A seat here means cities mdash like Ahmedabad Surat and so on Each card is worth certain points and the player with the maximum number of points wins the seat Here it literally pays to play politicsEven to the most seasoned player the rules of the game may sound a little complex Even convoluted maybe But during the one month that the project remained live on Indiegogo Bohra and his college buddyturnedproject partner Ritu Chaudhary managed to earn R20000 for their wildly creative idea mdash a far cry from their dream sum of R1 lakh but just enough to bring out 50 boxes of the board game send it to the 22 people who funded their project from all over the world and sell the remaining boxes onlineldquoThe success of our crowdfunding project has shown us that we have a good idea and that it will clickrdquo explains Bohra over a telephonic interview ldquoNow we are confident enough to venture into this on our own by taking a personal riskrdquo he adds The idea for Politics of India came when Bohra sat hunched over a board game during one of the several meetings that board game aficionados like himself organise in Bangalore where they spend hours playing specially imported German and US imported board games such as Power Grid and Ticket to RideCrowdfunding website owners in India unanimously agree that there has been a paradigm shift in the kind of projects crowdfunding websites fund these days People are now enthusiastically funding internships and trips abroad activities like a professional class to learn something new or finetune an old hobby and even surrogacy for absolute strangers mdash a surprising departure from earlier crowdfunding projects that had a grand social political or medical cause attached to it ldquoI even saw a project that wanted to crowdfund a funeralrdquo chuckles Rinkesh Shah founder of crowdfunding website Ignite IntentCrowdfunding platform Ignite Intentrsquos Rinkesh ShahReaching for the stars literallyIn the coastal district of Guntur in Andhra Pradesh KV Varun spends some of his time gazing at the night sky fantasising about what lies beyond the stars that seem to wink at him The BTech student approached crowdfunding website Ignite Intent in July last year for something that is by his own admission a lsquocrazy experimentrsquo mdash he wants to send the Indian flag a HD camera a GPS and a picture of himself to the outer edge of space ldquoNo one in India has sent our flag to space yet Once the balloon bursts because of the pressure inside it it will come back to Earth and it will be nice to see what kind of amazing visuals the camera captured of the Earthrdquo explains Varun who once nursed the dream of going to space as a childBut staying by the Bay of Bengal does not help matters for this 18yearold for precision is everythingIn addition to the accurate mathematical work that Varun will have to spend hours doing he also has to calculate the wind speed and direction for a successful launch ldquoOr else the payload will fall in the ocean or forestrdquo he points outKV Varun a BTech student in Andhra Pradesh hopes to crowdfund his project to send a camera to the outer edges of space for great photographsVarun needs R2 lakh for the payload and the kind of equipment he has in mind The project ultimately didnrsquot go live on the crowdfunding website ldquoI was a little caught up with my college admissions so I had to take a break from the projectrdquo he explains adding that he has plans to resume work nowSatish Kataria of Catapooolt agrees that crowdfunding websites now get a variety of projects ldquoPeople now get their studies and even travels abroad fundedrdquo he explains ldquoCrowdfunding has democratised funding and now people like being a part of someonersquos dream or projectrdquo adds Kataria who is in the middle of launching Indiarsquos first crowdfunding guidebook to spread more awareness about the conceptSaying it right mattersIn another instance adventure sports enthusiast Rewat Bir Tuladhar managed to successfully crowdfund a movie on his lsquojourney to become a professional skydiverrsquo by taking freefall classes ldquoI have learnt martial arts trekking and so on so I just wanted to experience thisrdquo explains Tuladhar who works in the quality control department of a Bangalorebased company His own friends were sceptical about the project ldquoBut I did a lot of research and emailed a skydiving school about the costrdquo says Tuladhar Funders are promised a DVD of the film Tshirts and many other gifts as rewards He finally managed to raise 50 per cent of the money he wanted for the project on crowdfunding website WishberryWishberry founders Anshulika Dubey and Priyanka AgarwalWishberryrsquos Anshulika Dubey explains that she liked the twist Tuladhar gave to his project on her website which was essentially asking money to learn skydiving ldquoI liked the way he intertwined the skydiving class with the whole thing It was smart If he had plainly asked money for skydiving classes it may have turned out to be different It was one of the more creative projects that we have receivedrdquo she explains Although confident about receiving more homegrown quirky projects in the next few years Dubey explains that as the concept of crowdfunding itself is fairly new in the country she does not see too many zany ideas breeding here right now especially when compared to the WestldquoI once saw a project for a catshaped candle that showed a skeleton once it burned itself out And it got funded toordquo laughs Dubey ldquoYeah abroad you get to see a lot of crazy ideasrdquoAyani Woge aka Ayani Abdisa would be a case in point The USbased 22yearold student of Northwest Indian College has asked for funds on an international crowdfunding platform for what she calls her lsquospiritual journeyrsquo to India and help her meet spiritual heads like the Dalai Lama Woge an EthiopianAmerican had her first spiritual experience in 2009 ldquoSpirits came to me in my dreams and gave me knowledge and prophetic dreams that came truerdquo she explains in an email interview Abdisa claims that she can also to enter the soul of another being and have access to its thoughts feelings and spiritAdventure junkie Rewat Bir Tuladhar is all set to learn skydiving professionally thanks to his successful crowdfunding project on WishberryQuirky quotientWith an increasing number of people in India ditching their day jobs for something that is creatively fulfilling crowdfunding website owners in India point out that innovators entrepreneurs and creative artistes in India have begun to slowly but surely up their quirky quotient Wishberryrsquos Dubey remembers the crowdfunded gig Control ALT Delete that set the stage for relatively unknown but no less talented bands from all over India to perform at Sitara Studio last year ldquoThey managed to raise more than R1 lakh I was surprised to see people who were not even going for the concert contributing moneyrdquo recalls DubeyRinkesh Shahrsquos Ignite Intent gets a lot of project proposals from IIT students ldquoOne of our earlier projects was by a student who was making a robot with skills like walking through tough terrain taking pictures and operating Bluetooth That project managed to get about R40000rdquo he explains Another student wanted to make a racing car that ran on electricity Shah explains that the onus of getting a project funded lies on the creator who should be motivated enough to approach people for fundsldquoHypothetically speaking I can take a month off from a job and ask people to crowdfund my expenses or salary and give services or products as an output of my talent as rewards The rewards could be anything from downloaded or collated clips of best movie scenes or one movie How cool will it be to see a mashup of Deewar Sholay 3 Idiotsrsquo scenesrdquo he asks ldquoI could also collate some all time favourite songs and hand it out Once the ideas are in place there are truly no limitations in crowdfundingrdquo he concludesDeceptively EasyCrowdfunding might sound like the easiest way to fund a project but website founders and owners caution that the success of crowdfunding a project mdash quirky or not mdash depends on how well the project owner can reach out to friends family and potential funders Talking about how he chooses projects that will go live on his website Catapoooltrsquos Satish Kataria explains that he looks at whether the innovator or entrepreneur can deliver the project on time ldquoThe person should not get money and then run away with itrdquo he points out Other criteria to greenlight projects includes overall cause of the project and how strongly the project will appeal to potential funders ldquoRight now there is a film on homosexuals that is trying to get crowdfunded The project is also relevant today adds Kataria whorsquos set to launch Indias first guide to crowdfunding