In Association with
French Fries Films
We collaborated with Etsy India to create their new campaign: #DiscoverIndiaWithEtsy featuring India's some of the eminent art forms. Our Team went on production with collaborative effort from Etsy and shot the campaign in 11 states of India.
Bidri
Karnataka
Creator of NovelBidriCraft - The Art of Bidri | Shah Rashid Ahmed Quadri is a renowned Bidriware artisan whose skills have been recognized by the Government of India. As a kid, he was adamant to learn about the various techniques of Bidriware - the fusion craft, and today teaches many inquisitive apprentices.
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Bidri was a project which was shot for the Discover India with Etsy campaign. A team of 4 landed in Hyderabad and traveled to a township in Karnataka called Bidar to shoot the craft of Bidriware. The first thing I noticed and what I absolutely can't miss mentioning is the beautiful clear sky & unbelievably vast and green landscape. Bidriware, a combination of Indian & Irani Art, came to India in the 14th Century. While shooting inside the workplace of the artist Shah Rashid Ahmed Quadri we realised how rustic the place looks which justifies the whole story of Bidriware visually. Shooting the process of the art was complex as it involved a few days to make a single product as the art is very intricate and we had only a couple of days to cover the entire story. But in the end this project became one of my favorites.
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Team
Directed by Abhimanyu Aneja | Post Production - Vinyak Das Gupta | Dop - Bharat Kumar | Sound - Chander Dev | Produced by French Fries Films
Kantha
Kolkata
Creator of RangamaatiIndia - The Art of Kantha | Dipa is a designer by education, and she is quite passionate about culture, art & handicraft. Her enthusiasm towards reviving Kantha, which was originally made to reuse old clothes, led her to work towards uplifting the rural women of West Bengal.
This was another project from the campaign Discover India with Etsy where we went to Kolkata, to shoot the art of Kantha. When I saw the city, I was blown away. It was my first visit to the city where I saw a combination of heritage & modernisation that awstucked me. I had never witnessed so many vibrant colors fused together in a city before. The Yellow Taxi, Red Buses, the Trams, those 100 year old buildings will talk to you in their own way. What surprised me more was how chaotically beautiful the city is. It was interesting to shoot for the art of Kantha which was preserved in Shantiniketan, the birthplace of Rabindranath Tagore, and practised by almost half of the village. It was delightful to work with Deepa Guha Thakurta, the artist from Kolkata who was very enthusiastic and confident about telling her story and her husband Sanjay was her biggest support and helped us a lot throughout the shoot.Honestly, Kolkata is more than brick and mortar buildings, it is about feelings!
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Team
Directed by Abhimanyu Aneja | Post Production - Vishal Sabarwal & Vinyak Das Gupta | Dop -Rahul Negi | Sound - Chander Dev | Produced by French Fries Films
Uppada
Andhra Pradesh
Well, this was one of the most difficult projects for me to shoot. We went to Uppada in Andhra Pradesh to capture the story of how Uppada sarees were made by the cotton and silk weavers of Uppada. A small village, located on the west coast of Bay of Bengal and almost every family in the village is involved in making Uppada Sarees. It was a very beautiful place, the village gave an authentic vibe and there were lots of tropical trees around the area. The people were truly sweet and humble but we had a huge language barrier as the script was in telugu and to my bad luck the translator we were about to work with did not show up. We tried to manage in every way we could but we were not able to, that’s when I got an idea and asked our taxi driver Vasu to translate for us. To which he agreed and together we made it possible.
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Team
Directed by Abhimanyu Aneja | Post Production - Vinayak Das Gupta | Dop - Bharat Kumar | Sound - Chander Dev | Produced by French Fries Films
Chikankari
Uttar Pradeshi
The Beautiful city of Lucknow welcomed us with amazing weather, it was raining throughout.
Lucknow, also known as Nawabo Ka Shahar is very beautiful and chaotic at the same time but it doesn't fail to represent its history and culture. You will be amazed to see how colourful, exotic and just royal the city is.
Shooting there was an opportunity for me and my team to go among the people. One of the locations was a dhobi ghat where we made the set up and we were surrounded by a huge crowd who were curious of what's going on there. But thanks to my team specially my Co-Director Ravneet Oberoi who controlled the crowd pretty well and together we were able to make it happen. Chikan kari is a very old and famous art form, from the Mughal times. It is an intricate and elegant art of embroidery pursued with a needle on a fabric. The needlework requires time and patience, and that's why the final product appears so appealing.
Team
Directed by Abhimanyu Aneja | Post Production - Vinayak Das Gupta | Dop - Bharat Kumar | Sound - Chander Dev | Produced by French Fries Films