First December Films.
In May, a seven-year-old girl on a Malaysia Airlines flight asked her mother if she could play cricket. A few seconds later, Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya and Trent Boult had turned the business class cabin into a pitch for her. In September, Air India told the story of teenage batsman Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, from his first flight on his father's shoulders to a country of 140 crore people standing behind him.
Two airlines, two very different films, and more than 148 million views between them on the airlines' own social channels. Both were made by the same Mumbai production house.
First December Films is an ad film production house in India, Mumbai that makes craft-first TVCs and brand films for some of India's biggest brands. "Our brand partners aren't buying a crew and a camera," says Ganesh Pareek, the company's Partner, Executive Producer and Creative Director. "They are buying a director's way of seeing. Our job is to find the right one for the film and protect and project that vision all the way to the screen."
'Cricket at 30,000 Feet', created in partnership with the agency Talented for Malaysia Airlines and the Mumbai Indians, launched on 7 May amidst the IPL season and was directed by Atul Kattukaran. The idea was simple. A cabin crew member picks up the announcement handset and becomes the commentator, and every ball lands on something the airline wants travellers to see, from the flat bed to the in-flight Wi-Fi to the satay. The 85-second film surpassed 141 million views online.
'There Is an Air About India', made with McCann and directed by Swami Anand Tirth, with Pareek as producer, went live on 18 September and has crossed 7.5 million views. Its roughly 100 shots of everyday India combine AI-generated imagery with licensed stock footage, including gully-cricket shots from DOT. Every shot had to pass the director's test: "does it feel like the real India?"
Pareek is clear about where the technology sits. "Technology serves the story, and can never be the other way around. It helped us show a whole country through one boy's eyes," he says. "The story, the references and the final call on every single shot have stayed with people."
That way of seeing comes from the company's roster of ad film directors, each known for a different kind of film. Atul Kattukaran, a Partner at the company, won a Cannes Lion in 2014, 2016 and 2017. Ronak Chugh directed Google Gemini's seven-film series on everyday Indian life. Sukriti Tyagi directed Meta's 'Cap Ka Suroor' with Himesh Reshammiya, which won two Kyoorius Blue Elephants this year. Shivang Monga made CARS24's 'Family Promises' campaign, and Shiv Parameswaran directed Google's #SearchSomethingNew series. Nitin Menon has directed Swiggy XL and Wonderla's festive films, Siddharth Sengupta BigBasket's Kapoor-sisters trilogy, and Ishani Das Pantaloons' Durga Puja film.
"Some films need comic timing, some need restraint, some need scale," Pareek says. "We would rather have a few distinct voices than a long list of interchangeable ones, because the brief usually tells you which voice it needs."
Pareek describes himself as an entrepreneur who became a creator, and he keeps his focus narrow: story, creative direction and the human insight that makes a film land. Agencies and directors arrive with the creative idea. He works out, scene by scene, what will really happen in front of the camera.
"Every good idea arrives as a metaphor. 'The cabin becomes a cricket pitch' is a lovely line until someone has to decide where the bowler stands, what the ball hits and which seat gets the replay," he says. "That translation is where most ideas are won or lost. The richer the idea, the more we enjoy the problem."
Pareek runs the company on seven laws he distilled from 182 business cases. In his view, that process is what lets a team take creative risks without the shoot falling apart.
The house made its name with Nike's 'Make Every Yard Count' (2014), made with JWT, which won seven Cannes Lions among 50+ international awards and was Pareek's first film as executive producer. 'Beauty Tips by Reshma' (2016), made in partnership with Ogilvy for Make Love Not Scars, followed with a Cannes Gold Lion and the Glass Lion for Change. More recently, Star Sports' 'Chora Chori' won Gold at The ABBY One Show Awards 2026, and the house now counts more than 150 international awards.
Pareek's own films carry the same standard. His short film Manu (2023) has won at three film festivals, including a jury award at the Dada Saheb Phalke Film Festival.
As First December Films looks ahead, Pareek wants one thing from the people it works with: excellence. That means directors, producers and creative partners who care about the making of a film as much as the idea behind it.
"The company is built for them," he says. "The idea gets you in the room. How you make it decides whether anyone remembers it."
