Breathing new life into tradition, one stitch at a time.

The story of Dayawanti and her love for Punjab’s traditional Phulkari Dupatta.

We partnered with Etsy India to make a series of films that capture the work of creators from across the nation who are putting India on the global map. What started as a way to spend time with her mother and grandmother soon became a lifelong love affair for this specific creator. 

Championing the preserves of craft

We had a chance to meet Dayawanti in her hometown Zirakpur, Punjab and capture on film her love for the craft of Phulkari Dupatta. Dayawanti is one of 20 such creators who opened their homes and hearts to us so we could create a business video in our signature French Fries Movie style and bring her story alive to the world.

Etsy India afforded us extreme creative liberty, supporting us with structuring the story narrative to be in line with the global Etsy voice. What was produced was a string of creative marketing videos that not only tug at the audience’s heartstrings but also work as business videos for these artists that the brand promoted across all social channels. 

Storytelling with purpose

This specific video encapsulates Dayawanti’s journey from being an inquisitive little girl to now a business owner who provides employment to almost 200 women across rural Punjab. She’s won awards for her pathbreaking work of taking Phulkari Dupatta from being a small activity for the ladies of a family to a world-renowned craft that empowers women and keeps the tradition alive.

Watch Dayawanti’s story here:

This specific video took us 5 days to produce. This included getting the film crew together from Delhi to travel to Punjab and shoot this story in 14 hours. 

Bringing this hidden story to life, despite all odds

While the outcome has been more than worth it, one of the biggest challenges we faced in putting this shoot together was that the production budget only allowed us to shoot this in a day, including travel time. And to add to that, this being Dayawanti’s first time, she was extremely nervous in front of the camera. It took much time for her to narrate her story in the most compelling way. One way we navigated this was by communicating with her in Punjabi, making her feel more at home around the film crew and the camera. We also extended our shoot by a few hours to make sure all the artists felt heard, and it was a joyous rather than an overwhelming experience for all.

Meanwhile, the fantastic tea, biscuits and similes Dayawanti offered us made up for all the extra time and effort throughout the day.

The video has since been published across Etsy’s social proprieties and hugely impacted PhulkariHub. 

The video production team that made this possible includes:

Directed by Ravneet Oberoi & Abhimanyu Aneja

Campaign Produced by Ravneet Oberoi

Shot By: Bharat Kumar & Amit Setia

Shot on: Canon C300 & Canon Lenses

Sound by: Chander Dev on Zoom H6 with a Sennheiser Boom Mic 

Edited by: Vinayak Das Gupta

Music from artlist.io

Client: etsy.com

Marketing head: Sunanda Krishna

Digital Lead: Tareeshi Sangal

This is just the first one of 20 such stories. Stay tuned as we break down the journey of the rest, from concept to content for you.

For any business video or corporate film requirements, feel free to set up a call with us here.