Bang Bang Films and B-Reel Films create Indian Premier League carnival

To announce and promote Season 5 of the Indian Premier League (IPL), Ogilvy Mumbai has created a Big Indian Cricket Carnival, featuring colourful performers, game kiosks, miniature rides and everything that you’d expect to find in a carnival. The highlight: unique rides themed after proprietary techniques of major players featuring in IPL 5.

Abhijit Avasthi, Ogilvy Mumbai's national creative director, explained the inspiration for the ad direction: "An evening spent with the Indian Premier League is a crazy time. Every match is a series of ups and downs. Twists and turns. Screaming. Shouting. Anxious moments. Exhilarating moments. It is all this and more. So we thought...can we possibly compare the IPL to a day spent at an amusement park?"

Behind the production were Bang Bang Films which co-produced the project with B-Reel Films director Anders Forsman. The shoot itself involved a large crew of more than 300 people and talent numbering around 200 across two large soundstages at Bandra’s Mehboob Studios. The team of technicians from Sweden created a number of rides in miniature format, including roller coasters, slingshots, and an array of carnival-related gallery games and challenges.

Roopak Saluja, co-founder and managing director of Bang Bang Films and a producer of content-for-brands across multiple platforms, said, “I can't even begin to describe what an experience this has been for Bang Bang – massive sets, precision miniatures and slick visual effects, to create what is arguably the country's biggest television advertising extravaganza of the year." 

Post-production and visual effects were done at The Chimney Pot in Stockholm. A vibrant lead character, played by theatre actor Makrand Deshpande, acts as the “Master of Ceremonies”, taking the protagonists and viewers on a journey to experience the carnival’s various delights.

“Shooting in Bombay was definitely an adventure," said Anders Forsman, director of B-Reel Films, which has offices in New York, LA, London and Stockholm. "There were about a trillion people on set and an elephant outside the studio.” 

The campaign teasers began airing on 26 February. The soundtrack is the famous old Hindi Music track “EenaMeenaDika” by Kishore Kumar from the film “Asha,” and was re-recorded from the original for this commercial by Dhruv Ghanekar.

The fifth IPL season runs from 4 April to 27 May.