Couples are singing their own wedding theme song, sending out animated e-vites and levitating for a photoshoot. Here are the gimmicks running the wedding film business
Hemna Kesaria
Titled The Singing Bride, a four-minute video uploaded by The Wedding Filmer last week has raked in over 1 lakh views and more than 200 comments, most admitting that it gave them goose bumps and mushy feels. In the video, bride-to-be Hemna Kesaria, croons an original Hindi composition, Ilitija, in a recording studio set-up and then, performs its acapella version at her sangeet ceremony, held in February, against the backdrop of magnificently lit-up Mehrangarh Fort in Jodhpur.
Hemna Kesaria performs an original composition, Ilitija at her sangeet ceremony at Jodhpur’s Mehrangarh fort; (below) she recorded it at a Mumbai studio
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Composed specially for the couple, it’s also the theme song in their wedding film. "Using current hits is trendy but after a few years, they become dated. An original composition is timeless," observes filmmaker Vishal Punjabi, about the latest trend doing the rounds in the wedding film business. Some time back, Punjabi, who heads the city-based wedding videography firm, recorded a contemporary version of the Folk song, Din Shagna Da. "It spawned a whole bunch of covers and it’s now become every bride’s go-to song," he says. The cost for a recording shindig could go upto R20 lakh but couples are game. "Jewellery and expensive clothes can be designed and stitched at any stage in life but you can only capture your memories once, when it happens," says Punjabi.
And he isn’t the only one. Last year, city-based photographer and cinematographer Harpreet Bachher of The Wedding Story, which has filmed celebrity shaadis of Ahaana Deol and Bipasha Basu, brought in local folk artists from Jodhpur to record a version of Kesariya Balma for a wedding film which starred a Marwari couple.
To-be bride Riya Kuwelkar collaborated with The Wedding Story to send out animated save-the-date e-vites
"The latest trend is customising the film according to couple’s personality traits and their story," says Bachher. For his current client, Riya Kuwelkar, who owns an animation studio in Nariman Point, he will make a part-animation, part-live action wedding film trailer. The to-be bride will add the effects to the reels herself, capturing her upcoming November wedding in Thailand. "We are in the process of creating storyboards and have planned a few shots too. For instance, we’ll shoot friends jumping into the pool and add a water splash effect," says the excited 30-year-old, who earlier sent out an animated save-the-date video as an e-vite. "It included a mix of animation and a video game play (my fiancé’s passion) along with our video game caricatures. It’s a beautiful memory," she adds.
Show it live
In the last few years, professional DOPs and filmmakers have nudged out local videowallahs to make wedding films that would give most Bollywood producers a run for their money. Apart from upping the scale with use of the aerial shots and drone cameras, they are now focussing on Live Edits too. Including the service in the wedding package allows guests to watch a four-minute reel, which gives a glimpse of the ceremonies, on the last day of the celebrations.
"It’s challenging as we need two laptops, an editor and an assistant on location to make the live edit. However, it’s amazing to see the reactions from the families, who get a sense of the fun and emotional joyride that the wedding has been. This year, we’re covering four destination weddings in Dubai, Phuket, Goa and Pune and all the couples have asked for a live edit," says Monisha Ajgaonkar of The Photo Diary, a Mumbai-based wedding film and photo studio. Some of their other innovations include setting up on-location video booths to get candid bytes and a stop-motion animation pre-wedding film. "We shot with the couple for a day and then, hired an animation studio in the city for the post-production," informs Rahul Lalchandani, who freelanced as co-director on the project.
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