Business

The Essence of Gujarat, Brought To You By Crowdfunding

By Gayathri Natarajan
January 18, 2018

How many times have we admired the persistence of musicians, slowly and painstakingly recording their craft, documenting it, and releasing it, sometimes years after the inception of their Idea. How many times have we wished that our favourite musicians received more support from the industry in India? Well, the revolution of crowdfunding is here, lead by Wishberry, a Kickstarter-inspired crowdfunding platform based in India and launched in 2012. Their latest campaign is for the project Folk Rang, by the Gujarati Rock Band, Meghdhanush.

Catapulted to fame by their appearance in the reality show Colors Rising Star of India Meghdhanush is one of the first regional bands to involve fans in the crowdfunding movement in India, reviving forgotten folk tunes of Gujarat. They are a Hindi & Gujarati Fusion/Rock band that believes in their passion more than anything else; a band that believes in the power of music to overcome all the negative energy and using that power to connect to people. This inspires them to produce fresh compositions in the genre of Experimental Fusion/Rock. Their hard work and training in Classical Music just adds the spice to their soulful and powerful tunes. During the 8 years of its journey, Meghdhanush focused and nurtured its latent talent of putting its own spin on literary rich Gujarati folk tunes, leading them to coin the idea of the ‘Folk Rang’ series. A 4-track series, the sole aim behind it is to express their love and devotion to their roots in their own style.

Gayathri Natarajan from Loudest spoke to the drummer extraordinaire, Dhaivat, where he spoke about his entire experience with Wishberry.

Gayathri: How did Wishberry happen?

Dhaivat: Apart from being a musician, I'm also a freelance producer and film maker. I knew Wishberry, as they were the ones who helped me realise the dream of my college friends' documentary, for which I composed the music - Goonga Pehelwan, the story of a hearing impaired wrestler on his quest to reach the Rio Olympics 2016. We as musicians also saw the international trend of how musicians reach out for help to fund their projects and worked with Wishberry, and the rest is history.

Gayathri: What is your present experience of the ongoing campaign?

Dhaivat: When we launched our campaign, the initial response was amazing! All of our friends, acquaintances, friends dating back to college and school days, all of them came together to support us immensly. We achieved 40% of our goal within the first 10-odd days. After that, the challenge was to reach the people who haven't heard of us before. Through word of mouth and Wishberry's help, slowly and steadily lots of people came forward to support our cause.People who heard our music 4-5 years back also remembered us and made huge donations! It truly is a great and a humble experience receiving so much support throughout the campaign.

Gayathri: What is the progress on Folk Rang so far?

Dhaivat: We have already completed recording 70% of the audio, and have started on the music videos. We have achieved 70% of our goal, and our campaign is only a few days away from seeing the light!

Gayathri: What is the next big thing for Meghdhanush?

Dhaivat: We have also had the good fortune of composing music for a couple of Gujarati feature films. We are eagerly looking forward to announce the next big film for us! This movie boasts of a stellar cast, and stay tuned for our announcement!

Gayathri: As an artist, what is your take on the business of music in India, and the challenges?

Dhaivat: Everybody has different opinions on this matter, and I'm sure my band members have other opinions too. As far as my opinion is concerned, I feel that Bollywood has a huge role in music scene in India. Music is defined by Bollywood and vice-versa. In my opinion, there is still a long and a slow journey to go, for the separation of Music and Bollywood as different entities, and that's where people like us struggle a lot. The idea of music existing outside films is still something that hasn't penetrated the national consciousness. That's where there needs to be a change. It's building up, but slowly.

Check out their campaign on Wishberry and support Meghdhanush in re-inventing old folk tunes of Gujarat for your listening pleasure. Hurry, it's only a few days to go! CLICK HERE TO SUPPORT!

Tags Business rock kickstarter wishberry gujarat folk crowdfunding Meghdhanush folk rang

The Essence of Gujarat, Brought To You By Crowdfunding

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