Overview
India has been making significant strides towards becoming a Vishwa Guru in the past few years. This was not the case when India achieved independence from British Rule. At that time, many scholars believed that with such an intricate socioeconomic structure, India would never be able to sustain its democracy. Yet, India stands tall as a thriving republic.
While the government has been actively working to provide better livelihood to the enablers of the country’s primary sector, one mustn’t overlook the perseverance of the non-profit sector, which dedicatedly works at the grassroots. India’s non-profit sectors help improve its socioeconomic structure and catalyse growth.
Especially after the enforcement of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by the government of India, many non-profit organisations in India are responsible for bringing innovative solutions to age-old problems. This sector has been uplifting communities to drive India’s growth momentum.
Moreover, such projects carve out some unique stories that need to be documented to inspire people. Their progress requires to be captured through visual documentation. Hence, the trend for documentaries in CSR stays in demand all the time.
Documentary making is related to more of the craft aspect of cinematography than to the art. Documentary makers capture the raw essence of prevailing circumstances to which the subject is exposed and not how poetically you show it. Only experts in this field can justify the subject’s true nature while understanding its overall sophistication.
Consequently, one will find many entities claiming to be thriving documentary makers, but only the true ones are dedicated to scaling heights through their honest efforts.
About Adani Foundation
The Adani Foundation, which focuses on the well-being of the less fortunate, has been driving social upliftment programmes in rural India. The organisation has initiated several human-centric campaigns in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
With the belief that everyone is entitled to equal access to opportunities regardless of socioeconomic background, the foundation promotes sustainable livelihoods, health and nutrition, and education for all as well as addresses environmental concerns – with an enhanced focus on women’s empowerment.
Project
About half of India’s population is women. Yet, the country’s socio economic fabric still treats women as the second gender and deprives them of fundamental human rights. At the time when India strives to become a superpower, it will have to put additional efforts for their upliftment.
Breaking the prevailing stereotypes, Adani Foundation has been running several programs to encourage female participation in the country’s workforce. With a particular focus on isolated hamlets, it has facilitated skill development programs and opened self-help groups collaborating with local NGOs.
Adani reaches out to communities to enable vocational education and employment-generation opportunities to uplift women in socially backward areas. During such courses, while a few women succumb to family pressure and give up, there are stories of women who, with their undying spirit, chose to break stereotypes and came forward. As a result, they not only helped uplift their families from poverty but also gave a better future for kids.
On the occassion of International Women’s Day 2022, the Adani Foundation decided to felicitate women who stepped forward to fulfil their dreams and became an example for other women in the community. Therefore, the foundation organised a live streaming program, ‘A-Rising’, of four impact makers from different corners of the country, speaking four different languages, sharing their life stories with Dr. Priti G. Adani.
Decode Mediacom was approached by Adani Foundation to capture the stories of four women living in distant hamlets, leading the women of their community to a life of dignity. As the theme “Gender Equality today for a sustainable tomorrow” suggested, women’s right to education and employment for a sustainable future was important to capture the essence of the ‘struggle to success’ in film.
It could have been only achieved when these women themself narrated their own stories. One of the biggest challenges women in India face is finding their voice. So, Decode Mediacom decided to give these ‘women of change’ their ‘voice’. We choose to keep the films unscripted and raw, a woman-to-woman interaction that tells ‘If I can do it, so can you.’
With this concept in mind, our team headed to the hometowns of our four protagonists. In a span of 8 days, we travelled to Parsa village in Sarguja (Chhattisgarh), Berdipur village near Tiroda (Maharashtra), Mota Kapaya village near Mundra and Vizhinjam in Kerala.
While filming these women, sitting behind the cameras, our hearts melted listening to the stories of struggle. It would often happen when our heroes, out of sheer honesty, would cry, and it would become difficult to keep the camera rolling!
As we returned to our desks with the loaded hard drives, we had only a couple of days to churn out four three-minute-long documentaries. However, after a few sleepless nights and working Sundays, we met our deadline with absolute dedication, smiling ear to ear.
Challenges
Our first challenge was the time constraint. We were supposed to shoot and edit four films in eight days. Usually, we try to keep a relaxed shoot schedule, while in this project, we divided our team into two groups which simultaneously reached different locations to finish the film production.
Another issue related to a tight schedule was the absence of site awareness. We did not get the time for the reccee or to meet our subjects beforehand. Such an exploratory kind of project limited our scope of cinematic craft, and everything we captured was impromptu.
After its completion, one of the major issues we faced was the language barrier. One of the impact makers was a Malayali woman who only knew and understood Malayalam. With no Malayali person on our team, it became challenging to converse and also edit this particular video. Additionally, subtitling all four films, especially the Malayali one, in a limited time was trying. Yet team effort persisted, and we had our final product in time. Also, establishing their hardships in their own environment and their culture and taking it correctly to the audience so that they can watch the videos with ample empathy was indeed a demanding task.
Opportunities
Documentary making is a challenging art when it falls under the CSR umbrella, as one needs to balance between the impact and the role of non-profit to stimulate the right message to its audience.
Decode always has a soft corner for non-profits and development communication projects, and our rare expertise in video productions aids our understanding of such projects. So, we were immediately excited about this project.
This project broadened our understanding of how corporates abide by their corporate social responsibility and devote their time and money to uplifting others. Working on a women-centric project that celebrated women leaders from the grassroots became an opportunity we waited for.
Moreover, we were elated that our films would be shown during a live interaction hosted by the Chairperson of the Adani Foundation, Dr Priti G. Adani herself.
Finally, this project helped strengthen our long term association with the Adani Group.
Impact
Our films received appreciation from Dr Priti G. Adaniji, Chairperson Adani Foundation. In addition, Pritiji presented all four films during her conversation with the impact makers, which was rewarding. Our work achieved another milestone as our video was viewed by over 1.2 million viewers live on the YouTube.
