The idea was actually inspired by a news story on a major news channel, where an English-speaking reporter was commentating on footage from a madrasa (traditional school of Islamic instruction). The video showed young kids trying to memorize the Quran. The commentator however, explained that the kids were being brainwashed and indoctrinated into jihadi ideology. There was nothing in the actual video to suggest his conclusions.

So we decided to get a middle-aged man, with the appearances of a jihadi cliché, talking to a bunch of kids in a language we don’t understand. We wanted to see how the educated middleclass respond to the video. As expected, most of them reacted to the visual stimulus, without bothering to question the content.

The film was executed in two stages. First the teacher and kids video was shot and edited. Then the video was shown in a controlled environment to randomly selected individuals. They were exposed to video without translation first and then with. Many of who watched the video, refused to comment. Some of the comments were too extreme to be used in the final film.

The video was placed on the Facebook page of THE NEWS MINUTE and then linked to their website. No money was spent promoting the video. The video automatically reached subscriber base of the online news channel.

The objective stated by the client was to achieve 300,000 views and a 1000 shares.

The video got more than 1.2 million views within the first 3 days. It was not promoted through any paid media or channel.

It garnered user engagement of over 19,000 and was shared over 12,000 times.

The debate in comments below the video were dominated by extremes on the first day, but was balanced by more moderate points of view subsequently.

This video received the highest user engagement recorded for a single post on the client’s Facebook page.

The video was created not merely to show how a handful of people (tested in the video itself) react based on their biases. It was meant to hold up a mirror to a larger population.

On the brand’s Facebook page, people took positions that were far left, far right, and everything in between. The brand was defended for being thought provoking and accused of trying to appease the Muslim community.

While the video exposed the fault lines that are forming within the educated (and theoretically progressive) middle class, it also got at least a few (hopefully) to rethink their positions.

The target audience was the average educated middle class individual, who gets most of its information online. These are also people who are most participative on political and ideological debates on various social platforms.

The channel was The News Minute, an online news portal. Their website subscribes and facebook followers were the key target of the film.

The News Minute is an online news portal with a regular base of subscribers and followers. While they have a regular churn of news articles, they want to be seen as a channel with a point of view. One that encourages people to think, question and debate, rather than just consume.

They wanted content for the newly launched Social section of their website, which is not pure reportage. Historically, the channel has been targeted at people from the South Indian region. But with this channel they are hoping to appeal to a more national audience.

They offered us a choice of three subjects, one of which was eventually agreed and developed. They just wanted it to be real, thought provoking and rooted in a current social issue.