I always enjoy watching the Madhya Pradesh Tourism Advertisements on T.V. Here are the three ads that I have seen and enjoyed several times.
Madhya Pradesh is called the Heart of India because of its location in the center of the country. It has been home to the cultural heritage of Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism etc. Innumerable monuments, exquisitely carved temples, stupas, forts & palaces are dotted all over the State.
New Ad of Madhya Pradesh Tourism
MP (Indian Province Madhya Pradesh) Tourism Ad hits the bulls eye again with this outstanding creation. (Ogilvy India)
The team required a model who had a background in Indian classical dance as her eyes do all the dancing, a trained classical Indian dancer would be adept at being expressive. Thats how they zeroed in on Sri Jayalakshmi Appodorai (Lakshmi for short), a Malaysia based South Indian Tamil model who has learnt Bharatnatyam, Indian classical dance. Indian classical dance requires Abhinaya (expressive manifestations of not just the body but the entire spiritual, emotional and physical being including the eyes).
Lakshmi is a Lawyer with the Bar of Malaysia, who won the Miss Malaysia India Worldwide crown in year 2000. She has since been fairly active in the Arts, Entertainment and Showbiz, and manages her own Production Company.
She has also acted in other ad films such as the new Minute Maid Pulpy Orange ad.
The others who supported the ad included, Shekhar Jha, Musician, Singer, Lyricist all rolled into one and Moon Chan director.
Moon says that searching for a model with naturally big and expressive eyes was an arduous feat. The model was also required to have the skill to manoeuvre her eyes according to the actions. The models eyes were naturally brown, making it perfect base for the work. One Sri Jaylakshmi was in rest was easy.
The attempt was to keep the eye movements as natural as possible and keep the transition between the real and CG movements as seamless as possible. The expressions in the ad are 60 per cent real and 40 per cent computer graphics.
One can observe that throughout the film, the edges of the frame are kept black. Naturally, this is done to ensure that the viewers focus is on the eyes. This was a very important aspect and for this the lighting set-up played a very crucial role in the shoot, says Moon.
The bioscope ad video itself was a good one and beating that deserves accolades to the MP Tourism Ogilvy India team.
The oldest cave paintings in the world, the oldest Buddhist stupa in the world and the largest wildlife sanctuary in Asia are all trying to invite travellers to come and visit Madhya Pradesh for sightseeing. Indian states like Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala have treasures far far superior to highly over rated taj mahal.
Dancing Eyes of Hindu Girl Say Come and See MP
The first and probably the best of the commercials made by Madhya Pradesh Tourism. This bio-scope advert was the beginning of the remarkable Ad campaign.