A traffic constable clears the way for hundreds of commuters, a vendor is out on the roads asking people to come into his shop in a sing-song voice and saucers of haleem are being swiftly placed in plates for customers.
These are common scenes of the Old City during Ramzan and Hyderabad’s Shoelace Films has now captured it in their music video, Haleem Bolo Haleem.
The video, which has got over 2.5 lakh views in just about three days, is now being called as a tribute to Hyderabad’s very own haleem. Talking about how the idea came about,
Asad Abid, founder of Shoelace Films, says, “Just a week before Id, we thought why not do something around Haleem. It’s a delicacy that has been awarded the Geographical Indication status and is a true part of Hyderabad’s rich culture.”
Kartik Rao, who works with Asad, says, “Hyderabad has so many stories to tell. Yet, the storytelling for Hyderabad has not been up to the mark till now.” Asad adds, “We are trying to change the narrative here.”And that’s why maybe, instead of a run-of-the-mill documentary, they came up with a funky music video, by taking in the ambient sounds.
Asad reached out to Prashant Narayan, a filmmaker, who put together a team of his own and they went about shooting the video. “We didn’t even know it was going to be a music video. We just went around capturing the life of Old City at night. It is filled with people,”says Prashant. With footage in their hand, when they sat on the edit table, they realised that the phrases and the way people sold products on the roads were very singsong in nature and that’s how the music video came about.
Talking about how the phrase “Haleem bolo Haleem” came about, Prashant says, “Our director noticed that when people were asking for Haleem they would just say the quantity of plates they wanted instead of actually saying the delicacy’s name. He told one of them “Haleem bolo Haleem” and he said exactly that. The phrase caught on and had a fun tune to it.”
The video was shot and produced in about three days. “We got the idea just a week before and that left very little time for production, yet everything fell into place,” says Asad.
Talking about how shooting was easy for them, Prashant says, “If you walk with a camera in the Old City, people aren’t just curious. They are more than happy to sit and talk to you over chai.” Asad adds, “You just have to build a rapport with them and you will realise people living in the Old City have so many stories to share.” And the response too has been great. “People who are away from home have been writing to us saying that the video felt like a walk down memory lane for them,” says Kartik. while Asad adds, “We didn’t have to promote the video on Facebook.”
