The film captures how a baby learns to speak.

We recorded little Maya every day, from the time she was born to the time she spoke her first sentence. It’s a project that took 22 months to complete.

We see the toddler go from babbling to saying syllables.

She mixes and matches syllables to form words. These words form broken, unclear sentences till the time she speaks her first sentence.

In the beginning of the film, the baby babbles as a one-month-old.

By the end of the film, she speaks the sentence ‘I love you mama’, as a 22-month-old.

It ends with the line that assures mums that every baby has a unique journey of learning to speak.

Speech/language is a major milestone for babies.

Mothers are constantly concerned about how many words a baby speaks every month.

The internet often sets unrealistic expectations by generalizing the number of words a baby needs to speak by his/her age.

But every baby has a unique journey when it comes to learning to speak.

Some babies learn their first word at 6 months, others can take about a year to say their first word.

The constant fear that their baby is not learning enough words, keeps mums away from enjoying the journey of a child’s growth.

Cerelac, an infant nutrition brand, wanted mums to enjoy the process of seeing their babies talk. To assure mums that every baby has their own unique journey of learning to speak, Cerelac launched an ambitious project titled – “the birth of speech”

Casting a newborn is a tricky process.

Most moms in the region are not willing to share pictures and videos of their baby.

We had to convince the mom of the lifelong memory she would be creating by being part of this project.

Yes, we were casting a baby. But much more than that we were casting the mom.

We were looking for a motivated mom to partner with us and record their baby every day, for however long it took for the baby to say her first sentence.

We began 2 years ago, with a casting call for new moms.

Now, a one-day shoot with a baby is cumbersome, imagine having to do it daily for 22 months.

Every day, the mom would send videos she recorded for the day.

Frequent briefing sessions would help the mom understand the process and for the team to understand her challenges.

Mums in the region are very competitive.

They often compare and discuss their baby’s milestones with other mums.

Speech/language is a major milestone for babies.

Mothers are constantly concerned about how many new words a baby speaks every month.

The internet often sets unrealistic expectations by generalizing the number of words a baby needs to speak by his/her age.

The constant fear that their baby is not learning enough words, keeps mums from enjoying the journey of a child’s growth.

Our job was to convince moms that every baby has a unique journey when it comes to learning to speak.

Some babies learn their first word at 6 months, others can take about a year to say their first word.

We wanted mums to enjoy the process of seeing their babies talk.