Crowdfunding to complete akriti singh’s directorial debut, toofan mail

Jyothi Venkatesh

Akriti Singh, best known for her performances in Broken But Beautiful, Kamyaab, Breathe, Photograph and scores of plays in the theater, is making her directorial debut with a Hindi feature film, Toofan Mail It’s not just the storyline which makes the film unique, but also the way it’s been made and funded.The independent film is based on a true incident from 1970s, where a woman arrived at the New Delhi railway station, claiming to be the Queen of Awadh, seeking to meet Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

They say films are made with crores of rupees, Akriti’s film is proof that films are made with heart and passion. The film is shot with the help of Akriti’s friends and colleagues from the theater fraternity. Now The film is taking a new approach - Crowdfunding, to reach the finish line.

Akriti says she wants to revolutionise cinema by making ‘story’ the hero of the film again and not being bound by a lack of money.We realised that the producers’ and financiers’ loyalty lies with money. The film becomes secondary and suffers. Our approach to film making was bold. Everyone took up multiple roles while making the film. To shoot this way with limited money demanded a lot of hard work, ingenuity and imagination,” says AkritiThey have proudly managed to shoot and edit the film.

Toofan Mail is in the finishing stage right now. The director explains, “The edit is locked and dubbing is done. We need funding for music, sound design and color correction. We will be crowdfunding the film through Wishberry. All good art requires a revolution and this film needs you to be a part of it. Crowdfunding enables us to keep the film first, front and center. Our friends, family, well-wishers, fans and film lovers will become a part of our film through crowdfunding.” says Akriti.