THE TIMES OF INDIA | I AM MUMBAI | 2012
They Only Cast Faces That Had Never Been on Camera Before / THE TIMES OF INDIA "I AM MUMBAI"
A man with a megaphone shouts about a real incident. The camera filming him was real, and so was the crowd surrounding him. The only script existed inside the performer's own head.
The problem
The setting is Mumbai. Mumbai Mirror, a tabloid that has spent years running reports built on readers' voices, made its first-ever video project to express what the brand stands for. The material came from four incidents the paper had actually reported on: a book burning, the adulteration of milk, the terrible conditions at a children's shelter, and a fight over illegal posters.
The insight
The core idea was that in a city where ordinary citizens often feel powerless, stuck at the receiving end of an indifferent system, a newspaper could give readers a voice. Reading about something as an article and having the person themselves direct their anger straight at you land in completely different ways.
The idea
The filming took place on the streets of Mumbai, using performers who had never stood in front of a camera before. They weren't even told where the camera was positioned, and the crowds around them were real passersby, so their expressions weren't acting—they were real. The only preparation given to the performers was a two-day workshop meant to draw out their emotions. On top of that, instead of the usual approach of shooting in color first and considering black and white later, the director made the bold call to shoot entirely in monochrome from the start.
What happened
The piece, made by Taproot with director Abhinay Deo, won Gold in the Film Craft category. In the Film Lions category, however, the jury president called it "too emotional, too loud," and it missed out on a medal there. The jury reportedly said it was "interesting no matter how many times you watch it."
Afterthought
There's something strangely fitting about this winning in the "craft" category while missing out in the "film" category—it suggests the piece was so full of raw emotion that it got passed over. Gathering non-actors, working without a script, and filming in a real city with a real crowd is a setup with nothing but risk. I'm impressed they actually pulled it off.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Gold 2012
