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It’s love-brewing-in-a-crisis type of a story. Just that the crisis is real and so is the love.  When the rain-beaten people of Mumbai landed up in various Barista outlets in the city on July 26 in 2005, brew masters whipped up quite a shelter for them. Director Mohan Sharma was one of the people who stayed overnight at a Barista and the plot of a movie was born in his head. “When the floods happened on 26/7, about 20 Barista outlets stayed open for over 40 hours at a stretch,” says Rini Dutta, VP Marketing and Product Development, Barista. “It was an initiative that the brew masters of each Barista took on their own. There were no higher orders and no bosses were informed. They just remained open, providing shelter, food and water. When the electricity went out, they distributed whatever milk and food they had in their refrigerators,” says Rini. It’s a perfect example of going beyond your line of duty. And so it makes for a subject of a film. The film titled 26/7 at Barista is about two people, a girl and a boy, who are stranded at a Barista and how they take charge of the situation. “When such things happen, there are good people and there are troublemakers. So the two protagonists are trying to solve things and in the process, fall in love with each other,” says Kabier Sawhney, who plays the lead role of Shivam. The love story is inspired by real events, though the identity of the people is kept a secret. Shot in the Juhu Barista next to Prithvi theatre, director Sharma and producer Sumeet Chawla approached Barista not only for permission to shoot there, but also for the inherent role that Barista played in the film. “We read the script and felt we should go ahead with it because it not only acknowledged the fact that Barista remained open and helped people but in a way paid respect to our brew masters,” says Rini. As the decision to use the coffee chain’s name was not a branding strategy, there was been no monetary exchange. The film releases on August 3. Visit www.26thjuly.com