“Do you want to shoot a music video?” asks Samira, the happy, smiley producer of Babble Fish. There can only be one answer to that question.

“Hell, yes!” 

And that’s how it began…my first shoot with a band for a music video. Them Clones is a Delhi based alt-rock band who have just released their first album Love.Hate.Heroes, and picked Bomb Song, one of the most popular tracks off the album, for their first single.

When you listen to the track, The Bomb Song comes across as both socially aware as well as a great listen and this led us through many different ideas for the concept of this video. Over 6 months we debated everything from locations to ideas to dates; there was even an idea for a video based on puppets!

It’s always hard to shoot anything on a low budget. A Music Video automatically turns ‘low’ budget into a ‘tiny’ budget, and if you throw in an indie band into the mix, you’re down to ‘miniscule’. But hey, I was up for the challenge and I realized “Don’t aim for the moon and then just end up in some back alley.” Re-wire your brain, think creatively, pull in a couple (ok make that quadruple x 10) of favours and we’re ready to go! 

After multiple changes to ‘everything’ we finally had a date to shoot the video and I all charged up, as was the band! But, as luck would have it, 24 hours before we were scheduled to start rolling in Mumbai (yes we even managed to schedule gigs in the city and fly the band down) the sky loomed over with menacing grey clouds, and it starts to pour! I looked to the skies and thought “Do I know what I’m doing?… NO!”

So after waiting, hoping and waiting some more, we came up with a couple of solutions … shoot the video in the rain? – too risky. Okay, wait till it stops? -Too long. Not shoot the video? –HELL NO! Move the location to Delhi? ….

And so it became, Bobby, Nikhil & I (travelling production team) got on a train and headed to Delhi. In four days we managed to recce our locations (thank you fairy godmother of locations Hinna Singh), eat till we could barely move, party (only a little bit, honest), have a bunch of band meetings and FINALLY we were ready to shoot.

It was a one day shoot where we captured the band performing as well as an array of different shots in 2 different locations and 5 different set ups, which helped to create a great sense of movement. The whole shoot was made so much easier thanks to my DOP Tarun Ghosh as well as (how can we ever forget) The Jagasia family. Thanks Dhruv for a great place to stay, eat, drink and un-wind after a hard days work. 

Hope the video gets some decent air play!!! When do I start the next one