When they let the dogs out

Until about two years ago, she was a confused 20-something trying to figure out her passion. But then a communication studies course in Mount Carmel college led her to her true calling  — film and video making. Meet 29-year-old Juhi Sheth,  a Bengalurean who went all the way to Cape Town to study filmmaking and came back to the city to start her own company called the Black Pepper Studio. Juhi recently shot a video of 69 cute li’l beagles,which is garnering major attention online. “These puppies were rescued from a laboratory by CUPA.

One advantage of having my own company is that I can dedicate a certain amount of my time to volunteering at their adoption center. I met some amazing people through the center and Chintana Gopinath is one of them. She was the one incharge of finding homes for these babies, so I reached out to her andasked if we could be involved in some way. And that’s how the video happened. These are exactly the kind of projects we wanted to do and here was our chance!” shares Juhi, who was overwhelmed by the response received by the video. “We had strangers messaging and thanking us, telling us how they were moved to tears. It was really humbling,” says the dog lover.

Shooting with the pups was a bitter sweet experience for Juhi. “On one hand, you see these babies wagging their tails and enjoying their freedom, but on the other, you see them jump at every sound and be terrified of everything. We are in the process of shooting a follow up with the puppies to see how far they’ve come. It was so heartwarming to see them spend time with humans. We cried and laughed with the families and bonded so well,” she adds. On an exciting note, Juhi and her team are in the process of shooting their next video as there is another batch of 156 beagles coming out in May. “We want people to be encouraged to adopt these sweethearts and not be afraid of them,” says the fervent filmmaker.

Apart from shooting the beagles, Juhi’s company has done a range of work including shooting with George Calombaris from Masterchef Australia for an online food portal. “We have shot some weddings, made some animated shorts for a company and also worked with NGOs. We do a lot of corporate shoots, and we have done music videos for a musician as well,” says Juhi of her exciting entrepreneurial journey.