Wishberry Forays Into Film Financing

MUMBAI, November 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Wishberry, India's largest crowdfunding platform for creative projects, is moving towards film financing for low-budget cinema. The expansion entails creating a legitimate digital platform for high-net-worth individuals (HNIs) to discover and invest in low-budget cinema. The film investment model is currently in pilot mode and will be running online as a full-service platform by mid-2018. Wishberry will continue to provide its kickstarter-style rewards-based crowdfunding platform to creative projects as well. ​The company's goal is to mobilize more funds into the film industry as the founders believe that low-budget films could be a lucrative asset class for HNIs. Wishberry is being backed by top angel investors in the country such as Google's Vice President Rajan Anandan, iSPIRT's Founder Sharad Sharma and Mohandas Pai, Chairman of Manipal Global Education Services. 

Four months ago, Wishberry kick-started its film investment services by raising Rs. 2.65 crores for 3 feature films: 'Chuskit', a poignant but lively tale of a Ladakhi paraplegic girl who is battling her condition to go to school; '1 Missed Call' a Marathi film set in the 90s that is a satirical tale of a village in India that witnesses its first mobile phone before it even gets electricity; and 'Chippa' a Hindi 'coming of age' film starring child actor Sunny Pawar of the Oscar-winning 'Lion' fame as the main lead. The budgets of these films are between Rs. 1-4 crores and Wishberry has mobilized more than half of their budgets by raising funds from HNIs.

Abhishek Agarwal, Designated Partner at Rockstud Capital and one of the HNI investors in Chuskit says, " I am very excited by the turn in Wishberry's business strategy. Wishberry is a data-driven start-up with inroads into the creative industry. It is in the perfect spot to marry investors looking to benefit from quick liquidity options with content creators. I trust their strategy on film selection and their estimation of a movie's saleability quotient, two integral aspects of validating a film investment. I hope more new-age investors look at diversifying their portfolios with films."

Celine Loop, Producer of Chippa and various popular films on Netflix including Brahman Naman says, "It has truly been amazing working with Wishberry right from the first narration meeting where Anshulika and Priyanka were both excited about the project I was pitching and decided to come on board! They were already brainstorming ideas of who they could approach for my film. Literally 8 days later, they called me back for a narration with an interested investor and the deal was locked within 48 hours."

Priyanka Agarwal, Co-founder & CEO of Wishberry comments on the reason behind this expansion, "Over the top (OTT) platforms like Netflix, Amazon and Hotstar have changed the game for low-budget cinema. Such films do not star big celebrities who inflate budgets. Hence such films can break-even and even turn a profit by tapping into several new revenue streams in addition to box office. Such streams include digital distribution, cable & satellite, international sales, in-flight entertainment, etc. Hence, we believe that low-budget films present a lucrative investment opportunity for HNIs as they can earn above market returns over shorter periods of time (12-24 months). We hope to educate HNIs about the mechanics of film investing over the next few years and help them adopt a portfolio approach while investing in low-budget cinema to make use of this opportunity."

Anshulika Dubey, Co-founder & COO of Wishberry further elaborates on their curation strategy, "We will strictly curate films within the Rs.1-4 crore budget range. Our main focus is on regional films that have a good box-office potential as well as films that have universal stories and hence are relevant to international markets and digital distribution platforms. Wishberry is focused on pushing out compelling stories over everything else and the 3 films that we have kick-started our new model with are great examples of the quality of films we want to choose."

About Wishberry:  

Wishberry is a new way to bring creative and innovative ideas to life. It is a rewards-based crowdfunding platform for creative entrepreneurs in India, founded by Priyanka Agarwal and Anshulika Dubey in 2012. Over 400 creative ideas spanning across films, music, dance etc., have raised over Rs. 12 crores from 19000+ people across the world. 

Media Contact:
Dhruvi Narsaria
[email protected]
+91-8369754440
Head of Corporate Communications
Wishberry Online Services