A hard-hitting drama bankrolled by a crowd-funding appeal helped save the life of its young star, the director has claimed.

PREMature, the Community Channel's first original drama series, is a coming-of-age tale about a teenager battling depression as he struggles to cope with pressures at home and in school. The six-part series, produced by Liger Films, concluded on Sunday (March 29) but is still available to view online.

It has attracted a small but devoted following thanks to its mix of gritty realism and the use of techniques pioneered by Dogme filmmakers, like shooting with hand-held cameras on location around west London, putting you at the heart of the protagonists' world.

Karanvir Bhupal heads the cast of unknowns as Prem Mehta, around whose real-life troubles the writer, director and co-producer Rohith S Katbamna moulded the story.

"Karanvir's a mind-blowing actor. When I met him I'd only written the first episode and I'd based the character of Prem loosely around my own struggles with depression," says Mr Katbamna. "From that point on Karanvir became Prem and vice-versa. I put Karanvir's experience of depression and family problems into the story.

"Karanvir told me he credits Prem with helping to save his own life, which left me shell-shocked. I'm glad it's had such an influence on his life.

"I think most people have been through depression, whether it's in their teens or early adulthood, but too many of them bottle things up.

"I wanted to encourage people to look inside themselves and talk to someone about what they're going through. Hopefully the show has helped viewers do that as well as Karanvir."

Phenomenal effect on my life

Mr Bhupal himself said: "To be able to mirror what has happened in my personal life and to take certain issues and to show them on screen with a character like Prem gives me such a satisfying feeling, the reality of all the problems being faced are in the open.

"Without saying too much, I feel Prem's character has had a phenomenal effect on my life and will continue to do so. The respect I have gained for my peers and the character is something which will stay with me forever and I hope that PREMature can change lives and help others just like it has done for me and many of my fellow cast mates.

"The way I see it, even if one person attaches themself to a story or a character or a scene, we've succeeded."

A scene from PREMature, much of which was shot on location at Cranford Community College

Much of the action in PREMature was shot at Cranford Community College, where both its director and lead actor used to study.

Other scenes were filmed at locations across Hounslow, Ealing, Hayes & Harlington, Uxbridge and Heathrow, among them Feltham Cineworld, Ealing Hospital, the London Museum of Steam & Water, and Gurnell Leisure Centre, in Greenford.

Mr Katbamna teamed up with co-producer Terry Mardi, who produced the first UK Asian Music Awards on ITV1, to make a pilot episode using £1,000 of their own money.

So wary were the pair of seeing their vision diluted by tinkering TV executives they turned to the crowd-funding site Kickstarter to raise the £35,000 needed to complete the series - a sum topped up by the acquisition fee from the Community Channel, which was happy to give the makers free rein.

Both men say they were disappointed by the lack of Asian faces on TV and by how lazy stereotypes often clouded what little representation there was.

We decided to break down the door ourselves

"You'd get the odd bit of tokenism but you never heard any real stories from this large demographic," said Mr Mardi, who grew up in Hounslow and attended The Heathland School.

"Rather than complaining we decided to break down the door ourselves. We don't see PREMature as a British Asian series. To us it's a British drama.

"There are none of the big Asian weddings or Bollywood numbers that typically feature when you have Asian people on British TV.

"Our storylines address the real issues affecting Asian families, which are the same ones facing anyone in west London, whatever their skin colour, and I think showing that helps break down barriers."

Mr Katbamna also said it was important to him to write strong female characters, of whom he feels there is a dearth in TV dramas.

"I was raised in a single parent household by my mum and a lot of the attributes in the female characters are those I saw in my mum when I was growing up," he says.

"It's been really pleasing to hear from female journalists who say they can really identify with the women in the show."

Despite PREMature's success, its makers say there are no plans for a second series.

But Mr Mardi hopes it will stimulate other screenwriters and directors, and says he has already received seven or eight ideas for new shows which he is considering.

Mr Katbamna said he saw the Community Channel as a "science lab" where he and others could develop the formula for a new kind of TV show.

Instrumental to PREMature's popularity has been the original music composed by John Atterbury, which is being compiled into a soundtrack available to buy.

"The music really feels like it belongs to west London and plays a big part in connecting with viewers," says Mr Mardi.

"There's one scene at Ealing Hospital, when Prem runs out of the building, where it almost feels like the hospital is talking to you. If that had been a Bollywood track with sitars and drums, it wouldn't have worked at all."

PREMature is still available to view online at premature-series.com.