Indian cinema, Bollywood in particular used to have something common in their movies until 2 decades ago, no matter what genre they were divided by. The hero fighting against the villains led by the heroine’s father, unbroken promises that leads to a serious conflict which eventually gets settled in the climax, spruced up by realisations, repentance and tears. Though filmmakers once in a while kept breaking the monotone, the picture remained unchanged at large. A major shift was witnessed during the first decade of this century, thanks to many thoughtful young filmmakers and contributions from other film industries which includes the South.

Documentaries back then were also treated monotonously in general. Most of them had a bass male voice, unpolished visuals, live sound and simple music. Such videos were easy on the ears, soothing to the eyes and food for the brain. I remember watching such videos in black & white during my childhood in the mid 80’s in theatres with my parents. It took me at least 5 attempts and almost 2 months (we used to watch a movie once in 2 weeks) to complete watching a documentary on Indian independence that was screened 20 minutes before the 6 pm movie. My amma would wake me up just before the movie begun. It was hardly the content of the video but the treatment which made it less interesting for a curious kid like me. There were exceptions though. Wild life videos were more engaging and so was a documentary on the rise and fall of circus, I remember. I was in my mid-teens when I watched a documentary on HMT watches. From ‘how it all began’ to ‘what we are today’, the video had the entire story of the company. I found the video interesting but more such videos were hard to find in the local video library back then. During the early 2000’s I came to know that such ‘Company Documentaries’ were largely known as ‘Corporate Videos’.

When the story is about a company, a documentary can also be called as a corporate video of the company. That was my gyan then. In 2005 I happened to see ‘Baraka’ an eye opener. I also started hunting for more out of the box videos in the digital space. That’s when I had the opportunity to watch more corporate videos from Microsoft, The Hindu, Apple and An eye hospital. The fact that I was a media student left me no choice other than watching those videos to the end, no matter how boring they were. I could no longer afford to take the little nap like I did before the movie with my parents. Most of the corporate videos were treated like boring documentaries, I found. Innovations and interesting elements were hardly thought about by corporate video makers during then. That was when I got the opportunity to write and direct a corporate video for a pharmaceutical company. I was super excited. Thankfully my client was all welcome for new ideas and approaches. I wrote the script with the support of my agency, made a schedule and travelled to their offices and facilities across India to shoot the video. My college buddy and good friend Nagarajan’s editing skills ensured a fine output which was well received by the client and their customers alike.

Corporate films were on demand in India and my newly launched firm was part of the race. Back in 2010, people used to call my office to check if we could make a short film for their company. The term ‘corporate video’ or ‘corporate film’ was not common in the B2B space in India. Not long ago companies had begun upgrading their marketing kit by adding a corporate video. In 2006, we had the opportunity to write and create a corporate video for the Metro Transport Corporation of Chennai which was eventually screened for top government officials, Ministers and the President of Volvo, Sweden who were the suppliers of AC buses for the transport corporation. Though we have made hundreds of videos since then, this one remains close to our hearts. Here ‘we’ points to myself, my good friends and cinematographers Sooraj Nallusami, CR Maravarman and our senior friend Mr.Rajaram. Here is the video that we made in 2006.

Today, a company is considered to be ‘reputed’ if they hold an active video portal and a social media page. Videos are no longer a choice. Corporate videos are here to stay and boom. Video production agencies that produce cost effective, quality rich videos are more in demand than ever before.

- RS Krishna
My business website is www.corporatefilms.co.in
My email is krishna@corporatefilms.co.in