Mahabharata, the epic Indian mythical text, in the south Indian version says, Aravan, the warrior god agreed to sacrifice himself in the battle to ensure the end of an extended war on one condition: he wanted to marry before his death. God Krishna assumed female form (Mohini) to honour Aravan’s sacrifice and married him for one night as no other woman wanted to marry a man destined to die the next day. Aravan went into battle and was beheaded. You can still find Aravan being worshipped as the local deity in a few villages in present-day Tamil Nadu.  

One day Australian director Lesley Branagan happened to meet a boy dressed in a saree in a village in Tamil Nadu.

Lesley remembers, “Some years back, I met a young man in a village in Tamil Nadu who told me how his mother had taken him to the Aravan temple when he was a sick baby boy, and begged the god Aravan to cure her son.  Like other parents of sick boys, she made an oath that if Aravan cured her son, the boy would worship every year at the Aravan festival, as one of the god’s brides. I was fascinated by the young man’s nonchalant attitude to fulfilling this annual obligation to engage in gender fluidity – a stance that was shared by the local men. I began visiting the Aravan temple, speaking with the elders, and attending the festival.”

Lesley further says, “as I spent more years talking with my young Tamil village friends, I heard them express their frustration about the constraints that their culture sometimes placed on them, the confined gender roles they were expected to play in everyday life, and the conflicts they experienced with their parents and peers around the expectations of these roles – conflicts that highlighted the clash of traditional notions and ideas of modernity.”

During the Aravan festival, many local men become brides for one day. Trans women attend the festival, as they identify with the mythical transformation of Krishna into the female form of Mohini. Both local men and trans women are ritually ‘married’ by the priest. At the day’s end, the giant effigy of Aravan is then beheaded after being pulled to a ‘battle’ ground outside the village and. Brides dramatically mourn the death of their husband, breaks the marriage jewellery in order to symbolise the end of their ‘marriage’ to Aravan.

Now ‘A Bride of Aravan’, the short drama film will be shot by directors Lesley Branagan and Yatra Srinivassan in Tamil Nadu in 2019 with the help of funds they have been able to raise via a crowdfunding campaign for this film project. The project has successfully overshot its goal with the help of 68 awesome backers. The project is also supported by ‘MatchLab‘ which is an Australian government initiative and thus every dollar you donate will be matched by a dollar from ‘MatchLab‘. You can also contribute your bit till next 35 hours and be a part of this change. You already know how much money does making a movie cost. You can read more about the movie plot, the years its creators/artists have invested in and the fund requirement here.  

Sources:

A Bride of Aravan – Kickstarter

1. The Chosen

VidAngel, an American streaming video and production company released a concept pilot of an upcoming television drama series The Chosen, a story of Jesus, which ended up being viewed over 15 million times on social media platforms. It is an effort to portray Jesus “through the eyes of those who met him”

The creators of the project had set a target of $13 million and have already raised $11 million from nearly 16,000 investors, as of 18 February 2019.

IMDb rating: NA

2. Veronica Mars

Veronica Mars used to be the popular girl? Yes, she was. She had cool friends and the jock boyfriend. The crowdfunding target was smashed as it had never been before when Veronica Mars” series was brought back to life in the form a movie with the help of crowdfunding campaign in 2014, seven years after the TV show was taken off-air.

Rob Thomas, the film’s director and co-writer said, “We raised the first million dollars in the first four hours, and in 12 hours we had hit our goal of $2 million”

The project ended on March 13, 2012 and raised $5.7 million in total.

IMDb rating: 6.8

3. Project Bring Back Reading Rainbow for Every Child, Everywhere

The project we are going to talk about now is based on television series that garnered 26 Emmy Awards, over 200 broadcast awards and a Peabody Award. Yes, you read that right.

Reading Rainbow(June 6, 1983, to November 10, 2006), an American educational children’s television series was brought back to life by making it available on iPad, on the web, game consoles, set-top boxes and other mobile devices. Also, the goal was to provide subscriptions of the classroom version to 7,500 disadvantaged classrooms for free. The show teaches reading skills, habits, and attitudes.

The campaign garnered $5.4 million by July 2, 2014, when the campaign ended.

4. Super Troopers 2

As you can pretty much infer by the name itself that the movie was a sequel to Super Troopers(2001). The characters found a place in people’s heart so much that the project to bring them back to life was heavily crowdfunded. It is an American comedy movie directed by Jay Chandrasekhar. Don’t you think if there is a sequel to a movie, the first one could be a must watch?

The project was able to raise $4.6 million by Apr 25, 2015.

IMDb rating: 6.1

5. Wish I Was Here

Remember Zach Braff from the movie Garden State? It is him again. Wish I Was Here is an American comedy-drama movie directed by Zach Braff himself. If you miss Zach, watch it.

The project was able to raise $ 3.1 million by May 24, 2013.

IMDb rating: 6.7

6. Lazer Team

Lazer Team is an American science fiction action comedy movie directed and produced by Matt Hullum. A group of four forms the Lazer Team, who find themselves responsible for the fate of the planet. Do you ask why? Because they discover an alien crash site containing a battle suit.

The crowdfunding project collected $ 2.5 million by July 6, 2014

IMDb rating: 5.6

7. Gosnell: The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer

This one shall freak you out. It is an American film based on real-life events about Kermit Gosnell, a physician and abortion provider. Kermit was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the death of a patient undergoing an abortion procedure, first-degree murder in the deaths of three infants born alive, 211 counts of violating a 24-hour informed consent law and 21 felony counts of illegal late-term abortion.

The crowdfunding project raised $ 2.2 million by May 12, 2014.

IMDb rating: 7

8. Blue Mountain State: The Movie

Blue Mountain State is a sitcom that portrays certain aspects of American university life including sex, drugs, wild partying, American football, binge drinking, and hazing.

The crowdfunding campaign successfully raised  $ 1.9 million by May 15, 2014.

IMDb rating: NA

9. Road Hard

Road Hard is a comedy film co-written by Carolla and Kevin Hench and directed by Adam Carolla. The story revolves around Adam Carolla who is desperate to revitalize his once-successful television career. He plays the role of an embittered comedian who is forced to hit the road and perform in low-profile stand-up gigs.

The movie project garnered $1.4 million in its crowdfunding campaign by Aug 2, 2013.

IMDb rating: 6.1

10. Da Sweet Blood of Jesus

Da Sweet Blood of Jesus is an American horror film directed by Spike Lee. The story revolves around a wealthy anthropologist who is stabbed by an ancient African dagger and turned into a vampire.

The project successfully raised $1.4 million by Aug 21, 2013

IMDb rating: 4.1

Sources:

List of highest funded crowdfunding projects – Wikipedia

IMDb

Main Image: ©Worldview Entertainment Double Feature Films

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