Written by on Mar 4, 2013. Posted in Production News

Radical Media stages Holi festival on location in India to David Bowie lyrics

Radical Media used David Bowie’s lyrics from Sound and Vision to stage the distinctive Holi festival on location in Jaipur in northern India. The scenes are the finale of a new spot promoting the Sony Xperia Z smartphone as two tourists snap the festival’s vivid colours.

Durban in South Africa was briefly considered as a filming location, but in the end the team decided to chase the authenticity of India for the three-day campaign.

“We chose Galta Ji as a location because Tarsem (the director) had filmed there before for his feature film,” comments Paula Mackersey, Head of Broadcast Production at McCann London: “It's a privately-owned temple and surrounds so we knew that we could have complete control of it without having to shut down public areas.”

Galta Ji is also known as 'Monkey Valley' and is normally home to several hundred rhesus and capuchin monkeys.

Paula Mackersey, McCann London

The team set up food and clothes stalls in the temple to recreate the kind of surrounds normally found during the Holi celebration.

“Galta Ji is also known as 'Monkey Valley' and is normally home to several hundred rhesus and capuchin monkeys,” Mackersey adds: “We preferred not to have them roaming about set so had to set off fire crackers every now and then to scare them off.”

Credits:
Client: Sony
Agency: McCann London
Executive Creative Directors: Rob Doubal and Lol Thomson
Agency Producer: Paula Mackersey
Production Company: @radical.media
Producer: Tommy Turtle
Production Service Company: Louise Banerji Productions
Director of Photography: Brendan Galvin
Director: Tarsem

Behind-the-scenes footage by LBi.