4rd AUGUST 2012
SATURDAY 4 PM
Radha's Concept Sheet
"The story of this fort is that there was a couple of a queen and a king. They were living happily. Suddenly one day the enemies of king's they fought to each other, the king's enemy wanted his fort and that's why he fought with king. There is a way to underground and king and queen ran away from that way. The enemies lived for a long time and he died. These is a hidden way to go to Taj Mahal, India Gate, Qutub Minar.
The surrounding of this fort was very opened and now it's so congested. The value of the Khirki Village is very high only because of this fort. There are three gates to enter and exit.
As I know the story of this fort is that this fort is a historical place. It has many windows so this area is also known as Window Village (Khirki Village)
In 2005 there was a work created by Government they wanted to repair this fort. When the laborers drilled the ground there was a few pots of gold. And now that gold is with Government."
When I asked Radha, what aspect of the fort she wanted to capture, she replied that this was a one of the most beautiful playground's for the children. In her mind this mosque was actually a fort.
Khirki Masjid, a structure that was originally built to house the quietude of prayer and ritualistic activities, has lost its religious sanctity. The dark corridors house alcoholic congregations and the musty domes have become the caves of thousands of bats. But according to Radha, it is a place of refuge for children girls and boy alike. The elders of the village occasionally visit this congregational space, but while I was there, I only saw creepy activities.
Radha choreographed this shot. My job was to help her channel her writing in conjunction with the imagery. As opposed to the older kids, her visual conception needed work, based on her literal representation of the structure in her drawing on the concept sheet. Inspired by Jaswinder's idea of staging the children in the mosque, we tried a couple of shots. She learnt how to improvise the image, and progressively changed her frame to include the window in the back.
Radha got her chance and we had to move on to the next campaign; Prakash's cut paste experiment.
Andi was having a good time photographing too.
Photo by Unknown Participant.
Other children who had joined in later and had no campaign to shoot, just played around with the cameras
Photo by Unknown Participant.
Adil and Manohar also joined the session along with Radha, Jaswinder, Shivani, Komal, Sampa, Anjali and Nandani.
The next day we made this. Radha's final campaign.
Art Director: Radha Kumari
Copywriter: Prakash, Radha Kumari
Contributions by Roshan Kumar, Arjun Sarkar, Siddharth Kumar, Pradeep Kumar, Sandeep Kumar, & Jaswinder