Making the most of the lockdown situation, Natasha Malpani Oswal, founder of Boundless Media, a new-age media company, has come up with two series - Objectified and Unseen that will trigger fresh conversations. A firm believer in the power of storytelling, the former investment director firmly believes that the audiences are hungry for smart, subversive and fresh stories. Oswal takes us through her two films that explore themes like mental health, anxiety, grief and more dominating the pandemic. Read on to know more.
Tell us about your lockdown series Unseen and Objectified.
Lockdown has been a great time to innovate and we’ve made two very different series. The first project, Objectified is a mixed-media series where we’ve brought your house to life, featuring relatable conversations and tackling serious questions that this pandemic has raised like productivity, mental health, the gender divide and sustainability versus the stock market. Interestingly, everything has been done in a light-hearted and funny way.
On the other hand, Unseen is a lockdown series that explores the darker side of the pandemic. Shot in Kanpur, Manali, Bhopal and Mumbai during the lockdown, the series covers stories on mental health, anxiety, grief and privilege. We think this is a very timely series given the message here is: it’s okay to not be okay. We hope it will spark important conversations.
Since the series was shot in multiple cities, tell us about the making of the project.
We were lucky to work with a stellar cast and crew on Unseen. We shot each episode in the home of our actors - Akashdeep Arora, Kokila Beri, Tannya Lokwani, Aditya Pandey and Rea Malhotra across Kanpur, Manali, Bhopal and Mumbai. We scripted, cast, directed and edited the episodes over Zoom! The natural lighting and minimal art direction emphasise the strength of the stories and the strong actor performances.
What are the subjects and formats that you work on?
At Boundless Media, we tell genre-bending stories for a new India. We love experimenting with mediums and formats. We work across long-form and short form-formats, but we always put the story first. We’re always on the lookout for great creative talent and voices. We ensure all our stories are authentic, innovative and timely. The constraints that lockdown has imposed have pushed to get even more creative and experimental with our work- this is a ripe time for storytelling. Right now, we’re working on a sci-fi series, a fantasy series, a dark comic film and an animated dystopian film. We think audiences are hungry for smart, subversive, fresh stories.
Streaming on Instagram and YouTube