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There was a time when, if you wanted funding for a project you believed in, you would have had to know someone in your industry. Or have rich parents. These days, we have the internet.

A 43-year old man from Bangalore, Ravi Shankar has adopted the crowdfunding model to produce his latest film, Punyakoti, an animated movie about a pious cow and a hungry tiger. But there's a quirk: The film isn't in Kannada, Hindi or English; it's in Sanskrit.

Before Shankar, Kannada filmmaker, GV Iyer has made two Sanskrit feature films: Adi Shankaracharya (1983) and Bhagavad Gita (1993), both of which won National Awards. With Punyakoti, Shankar is hoping to carry on that form by telling a Panchantantra-style story about a cow who is about to be killed by a hungry tiger.

Shankar has used the web-platform Wishberry to crowdfund his project and so far he has been able to collect Rs 23 lakh out of the Rs 40 lakh he was hoping for, to make the film. He wouldn't, however, be the first Indian director to crowdfund a film, although the combination of animation and Sanskrit does make Punyakoti unique.

In 2010, Onir, a film-maker known for his work in My brother Nikhil, raised Rs 1 crore for his film I am. The film featuring Juhi Chawla,Sanjay Suri, Rahul Bose and Manisha Koirala won him two national awards was entirely produced with the help of people, and had many names as producer during the credit roll. Way back before the internet became a prevalent source in India, Shyam Benegal, a renowned film-maker raised over 2 lakhs from farmers in 1976 to make his film Manthan.