Chingari NFT Marketplace Launches With its Own Social Token, GARI

Indian short video platform, Chingari, has hopped on the NFT bandwagon with its own NFT marketplace as well as a native crypto token, $GARI. Bollywood actor Salman Khan launched the NFT marketplace and $GARI on Saturday, October 16. He is also the brand ambassador for the marketplace and the $GARI Token reward programme.

“The creators are shaping the future of entertainment,” Khan was quoted by Inc42. “With the incorporation of the $GARI reward programme, the creators will further get motivated to create newer and more engaging videos on the Chingari app.”

Chingari’s foray into NFTs

Chingari is a short video platform that allows users to upload and download short videos. Early this year, it entered the social commerce market to enable users to shop within the app. The startup was founded in 2018 by Sumit Ghosh, Deepak Salvi, Aditya Kothari, and Biswatma Nayak. Today, it claims to have over 50 million monthly active users and has amassed 85 million downloads to date.

With the launch of its own NFT marketplace and $GARI token, content creators on Chingari will be able to set up their ecommerce venture to sell merchandise, create NFTs, and allow fans to fund their artists. 

“Chingari’s blockchain platform will allow users to obtain tokens for creating or watching content,” said Chingari CEO and Co-founder, Sumit Ghosh. “The idea is to monetize creators’ talent and empower them via a social platform.” 

The startup has partnered with Solana blockchain to build its token. Furthermore, a week back, the startup had raised over $19 million from over 30 venture funds and individual investors. This includes Republic Crypto, Galaxy Digital, Solana Capital, Afton Capital, CSP DAO, and more. The company will use the fresh funds to build $GARI, Chingari integration beta, test blockchain live, and more.

NFT scene in India 

The NFT industry in India has been picking up pace recently. There have been many promising developments in recent months that spell big things for the country’s NFT future. For instance, back in June, Binance-owned WazirX launched the country’s first NFT marketplace. 

The NFT craze has been gradually catching up with the Bollywood industry as well. One of the firsts from the industry to enter the space is superstar Amitabh Bachchan, who announced his NFT collection early last month. The collection included a signed poster of his much-acclaimed 1975 movie, ‘Sholay.’ Bachchan has a huge presence in India and a massive fan following. Thus, his entry into the space has the potential to take NFTs to a wider audience in the country.

Around the same time, actress Sunny Leone also announced her NFT collection. Meanwhile, a week back, Khan launched his collection on BollyCoin. One million of his Bolly tokens were sold out within three hours!

Meanwhile, Bolly Heroes NFT Project launched late last month, to facilitate the creation of a Bollywood metaverse. The platform will allow users to create NFTs in collaboration with production houses, brands, celebrities, and more. Clearly, NFT enthusiasts in India have much to look forward to in the coming weeks and months!