Film Craft > Production

SAVLON - THE ARTIST

OGILVY INDIA, Mumbai / ITC SAVLON / 2021

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Overview

Credits

Overview

Write a short summary of what happens in the film.

The film's protagonist Swapna Augustine, is a woman without hands. She is also one of India's best foot artists. The film opens on Swapna painting gracefully with the brush held in her foot. The voice narrates Swapna's thoughts. Swapna states that though she is a gifted artist, in all other aspects she's just like us. Then the film captures snippets of her daily life. We see her using her feet to make tea, apply make-up, for gardening, etc. When she's offered her favourite sweet, she reaches out to pick it with her foot but pauses and says that there's one thing that she does not forget to do - use handwash. She then washes her feet with handwash. The film ends with Swapna asking a simple yet powerful question – “If it's so easy for me to use handwash, why don't you?”

Cultural / Context information for the jury

To contain the spread of the pandemic, an abrupt and complete lockdown was enforced throughout India in March 2020. Though people took things very seriously initially, by October (when the film was released) many had stopped taking necessary precautions like using handwash. They had been bombarded with so many instructions to wash hands by everyone from the WHO to local brands; nothing registered any more.

Tell the jury about the casting process.

During the pandemic, India was saturated with handwashing messages from celebrities, politicians, doctors, etc. Nobody wanted to hear about it anymore. So when Savlon decided to talk about the need for using handwash, we chose someone whose message couldn’t be ignored. A woman born without hands became our spokesperson for handwash. We partnered with Mouth and Foot Painting Artists (MFPA) and via them with Swapna Augustine, one of India’s best yet little known foot artists.

When we reached her village, we realised she does more than just painting with her feet. Her feet were her hands in every aspect of her life. A fiercely independent person, she does everything a person with hands does. When we spoke, she mentioned being without hands is normal for her and she was just like us. This made us believe that there couldn’t be anyone better than her to give the handwashing message.

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