from the pages of diary -Making of a Music Video that stood the test of time (Unfortunately!)

[originally written for the online blog ‘Passion for Cinema’, August 16, 2010] As the nation is celebrating yet another independence day, I remember a music video we had made for the NGO Action Aid India on 2003.

The NGO was launching a donor card called ‘Karma Mitra’ and Mr. Jerry Almedia, then CEO of Action Aid India, had the idea of promoting it with a music video -an innovative idea at that time in India. They had obtained the rights of a beautiful song called ‘Khushi’ from a band named ‘Vedic Chants’ (now disband, two of its member -Suhash & Sidhart- had turned composer for films with ‘Hangman’) and approached us for making of the video. They wanted us to shoot the video in 16mm. No doubt, an exciting prospect! But there was a catch – the total budget for the project was all of Rs. 100,000/-!

But the idea was too good to say no. And we started working backward. First, started approaching technician friends for being a part of this project in a price much lesser then their market rate. And we requested Action Aid for some of their archival project footage. We made a rough cut and put it at the edit time line, to know exactly how much (or rather how less!) we need to shoot the band for filling up the blanks.

Enters Action Aid’s western India resource mobilization officer Bosco Fernandes into the picture. Through him we started approaching different people and organization for charity on kind. And we were surprised with the result! Right from getting camera, shooting floor, raw stock and other shooting equipments either free of charge or at a much discounted rate reinforced our belief in basic human goodness that lies in all of us… However, what takes the cake is undoubtedly the Trans FX studio of Worli. Our graphics artist Nicholas Washington had given an estimate of some three shifts of work in SMOKE machine and accordingly we were promised a few grave yard shifts (starting from close to midnight) by its owner Hussain Lakhani as a gesture. But when Nicholas actually get down to working, the actual time taken was more than double of what he had estimated…And during those days, SMOKE machines used to cost Rs 3000/- an hour on hire…

To cut the long story short, we did manage to make the music video within the stipulated budget…and we would like to believe, we made it without compromising at its look in any way… As for whether the video had the desired result, Action Aid India will be in a better place to answer. They even had planned to release the video in different cinema halls across the country as a social service film and had tied up with Prime Focus Ltd and Kodak for the same – but somehow, the idea fizzled out…

When I revisited the video recently, I found it relevant even after 10 years of its making… but the eternal optimist in me would love to believe that this music video will loose its relevance soon!

Bidyut