Indian in a Day is India’s largest crowdsourced documentary, the story of a single day, 10th October 2015. The film is a unique document, capturing a remarkable range of characters and personal reflections on what it means to be alive in India today, submitted by individuals from across the country.
The 90-minute feature-length documentary was born out of a unique partnership between Ridley Scott’s Scott Free UK and Google. Enlisted to capture a moment of the day on camera, Indians responded in their thousands by submitting more than 16,000 videos, containing over 365 hours of deeply personal, heartfelt, and joyfully honest moments. Footage came from all over India; from Rajasthan to Kerala to the far reaching Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The resulting film, offers a remarkable insight into the lives, loves, fears and hopes of people living in India today.
I had the opportunity to travel through India for the first time last year. After a short three week trip it became clear I had only enjoyed a tip of India’s iceberg via jaunts to the breezy capital Delhi, backwaters of lush Kerala and cosmopolitan Mumbai.
While watching India in a Day I couldn’t help but feel as though I was being transported back to the magical land of Maharajas and Mughals. The film’s editor perfectly strung together a documentary which feels as though you are watching an endless stream of Vine and Instagram Stories. Personal perspectives change, landscapes transition, many meals are shared and selfie sticks finally find a noble purpose.
For writer-director Richie Mehta, the the prospect of tackling a crowdsourced documentary was an exhilarating challenge and also a natural progression in his creative trajectory. Richie saw great opportunity to rediscover the people and stories of India through a documentary lens, “I always looked at the idea that if you can figure out what’s happening in India in any sense, you’re going to have some sort of roadmap for how we all get along when there’s not enough resources and too many people. It’s a unique metaphor for the world as a whole.”
Days before the filming day, Richie set out for India, where he was to be both witness and participant on October 10th. “It was an incredibly tough day as I was constantly on the move and filming. We had done so much outreach work in the lead up to ensure that as many people as possible had heard about the project, so I prayed that people had been inspired to film.” As the day ended and the footage began to stream in, Richie was straight back to London for the monumental editorial job ahead.
The footage submitted by participants was uploaded on a website set up by Scott Free and Google. There was no limit to the number of clips a filmmaker could submit and thus participants’ efforts ranged from filming one clip to as many as 500. It was the job of the data management team and assistant editors to ensure the smooth and safe transition of this material through to the editorial team. “Having got all this footage in we were somehow making sure it was on this massive online database, all sorted by users, and then that footage was distributed to our loggers.” said Richie.
The most important stories often emerged unexpectedly. “What I didn’t anticipate was some of the heartfelt personal stories. One woman, Priya, is so magnificent because she lets you into the five minutes of her day that as a single mother she gets to herself. In the context of being a single mother in India she speaks about her aspirations, her missed opportunities, her hopes for the future. It struck me that people didn’t just talk about the issues – they talked about themselves, which becomes relatable anywhere in the world”, said Richie.
Something that struck the creative team was the ease with which the young generation interacted with cinematography, “Most of the footage I think came from perhaps the twenty year olds to late thirty year olds – they’re people who use cameras and phones routinely. They are the generation of video diarists – completely comfortable with being on screen.”
Richie felt the older contributors added an extremely important dimension to the film and the story of India, “Whilst we didn’t have a lot of submissions from the older generation, they reinforced what a lot of the youth were trying to say but couldn’t express. They shared their hopes for their children and their grandchildren’s generations – reflecting a certain type of wisdom that comes with age.”
