01
Concept & narrative
I shape the idea, tone, emotional arc, and story direction before a shoot begins.
Chapter II
The CineLove chapter.
Learning how to lead bigger productions without losing the story. Scale, planning, and execution under pressure.
Brand film · Sony x CineLove
Sony x CineLove.
The brief
Sony India needed a brand film that showed what their professional camera lineup could actually do in the hands of working filmmakers. Not a product demo. Something that felt like a real production.
The approach
I wrote the script from scratch, building a story that put the gear in the context it belongs in rather than putting it on a pedestal. Then I produced the whole thing. Concept, storyboard, team, shoot, post. All of it.
The result
A brand film that works as both a product piece and a cinematic one. The two do not have to fight each other.
What I do at CineLove
The story, the plan, and the direction around it.
At CineLove, my role sits between storytelling, direction, production planning, and client experience. This chapter is where the work became larger in scale and sharper in responsibility, asking me to build narratives, align teams, solve in real time, and keep the emotional core intact under pressure.
My role at CineLove moves across the full lifecycle of a project, from concept to execution to the final film. The work is broad, but these are the responsibilities I return to most often.
02
Pre-production planning
I plan locations, timing, movement, styling, and sequences so the visuals have intent.
03
On-ground direction
I direct energy, interactions, and rhythm on shoot days instead of relying on static posing.
04
Team alignment
I brief photographers, cinematographers, editors, and production so execution stays consistent.
05
Client clarity
I translate creative ideas into something clients can trust, understand, and feel part of.
06
Post-production supervision
I stay involved in the edit so pacing, music, and narrative flow still feel intentional.
How this shows up in practice
Two projects that reveal how I work.
The role itself is broad, so I did not want this chapter to stay abstract. These two projects are a more specific way to show how that thinking plays out in real situations.
One comes from pre-wedding planning across borders. The other comes from a wedding that changed the way I think about direction. Together, they show the kind of work I am trusted to step into and shape.
Case study 01
Planning across borders.
A broader example of how I think through destination pre-weddings before anything is booked or shot.
Planning across borders starts much earlier than the shoot itself. It begins with understanding the couple, the kind of world the story needs, and which locations can actually hold that feeling once timing, access, weather, commute, permits, and energy are taken into account.
A lot of that work lives in research, destination boards, route thinking, visual references, local coordination, and understanding what is practical without flattening the idea. The point is not just to find a beautiful place. It is to find a place that can carry the story and still work in real conditions.
These boards are a small window into that larger process. They reflect some of the destinations I’ve explored and planned pre-weddings around while shaping different kinds of narrative possibilities for different couples.
Japan example
A plan that took three attempts.
A closer look at how one destination pre-wedding kept evolving before it finally happened.
Some projects come together quickly. This one took nine months, three couples, and multiple iterations before it finally came to life. It started in January as a pre-wedding plan for one couple and didn’t materialise. The same plan evolved again for another couple in May and September, and still didn’t happen. But the process continued.
Eventually, in late September, the project was executed with Snehil & Nishu, carrying everything that had been built, tested, and refined over months. Here is the paper trail, one sheet at a time.
The Japan paper trail
From the first client meeting to the final mood board.
01 / 10
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Step 01 · Client notes
The first notes I took during the client meeting, when Japan was still one option among many.
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Step 02 · Client notes
These notes show how the first round of thinking started taking shape before the route was clear.
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Step 03 · Destination options
I was comparing different destination options here and figuring out where Japan sat within the larger planning conversation.
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Step 04 · Narrowing down
By this stage, the thinking had started narrowing, and Japan was becoming a more serious direction to build around.
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Step 05 · Location scouting
This was the first location scouting pass for Japan, listing the kinds of places the shoot could realistically happen in.
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Step 06 · Location scouting
The scouting became more specific here, moving from broad interest to practical route and day-trip possibilities.
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Step 07 · Location scouting
This part shows the later-stage scouting, where the shortlist became more grounded in actual travel and shoot feasibility.
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Step 08 · Logistics
One of the mails I wrote to a local DMC to coordinate commute, logistics, and on-ground shoot support in Japan.
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Step 09 · Final itinerary
This became the final itinerary once the route, sequences, and logistics were locked in for the Japan shoot.
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Step 10 · Mood board
This was the final mood board that brought the visual direction, references, styling, and sequence thinking together.
Final output
The Japan pre-wedding: film & frames.
Nine months is a long time to keep planning something that has not happened yet. What kept it going was not optimism. It was the fact that the research was solid, the location logic was right, and the production framework was built to survive the restarts. When the right couple finally came and the conditions aligned, nothing needed to be rebuilt from scratch. That is what pre-production is actually for.
Case study 02
The wedding that taught me the most.
This wedding became an important example of how I think about direction now.
One ambitious wedding idea changed the way I approached weddings altogether. It reminded me that the work is not to impose a concept on every moment, but to recognise where the real emotional anchors already are and build the film around them.
Since then, I’ve become more interested in directing energy rather than poses, shaping sequences instead of isolated shots, and helping the team stay aligned to a story rather than simply covering an event. That shift has influenced how I work with couples, how I brief teams, and how I think about the final film in the edit.
Wedding example
A wedding that changed the way I see the story.
A closer example of the project that pushed me away from scripted direction and toward observation.
The idea
The groom was a well-known singer, and the plan was to approach the wedding like a documentary rather than traditional coverage. We built a narrative around his journey as a prodigy, with the wedding representing a turning point. To support this idea, we prepared a script and a detailed shot list, planning sequences across different locations.
When it fell apart
Once the wedding began, reality took over. Timelines shifted, the environment changed, and the moments simply didn’t unfold as expected. In the end, none of the frames from the original shot list were captured.
The lesson
That project changed everything. I realised that weddings shouldn’t be scripted like films. The real story already exists in the moments unfolding naturally.
Notes, briefs & storyboards
How the scripted version of this film was planned, before the day rewrote it.
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Step 01 · Initial notes
Initial note 01. Early character and story notes around the emotional direction of the film.
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Step 02 · Initial notes
Initial note 02. Additional handwritten thoughts while shaping the early narrative approach.
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Step 03 · Initial notes
Initial note 03. More raw thinking from the stage when the film still felt like something we could script in detail.
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Step 04 · Ideas
Ideas 01. Early conceptual framing: a singer is not born, a singer is summoned.
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Step 05 · Ideas
Ideas 02. Expanding the theme: the prodigy, the struggle, and what still feels missing.
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Step 06 · Brief
Brief 01. The first structured brief, defining the couple and the symbolic language.
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Step 07 · Brief
Brief 02. Organising the film flow around the groom’s musical journey.
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Step 08 · Brief
Brief 03. Translating the concept into a working shot list.
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Step 09 · Brief
Brief 04. Building the bride’s side of the story and the love narrative.
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Step 10 · Brief
Brief 05. Expanding the relationship dynamics we wanted to carry.
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Step 11 · Storyboard
Storyboard 01. Initial frames and title-card direction for the opening.
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Step 12 · Storyboard
Storyboard 02. Visual references to establish the early connection.
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Step 13 · Storyboard
Storyboard 03. Memory, parents, and childhood references.
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Step 14 · Storyboard
Storyboard 04. Alternative opening-frame treatments and tonal options.
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Step 15 · Storyboard
Storyboard 05. Pre-Nikah energy and behind-the-scenes beats.
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Step 16 · Storyboard
Storyboard 06. Ceremony-focused frames built around emotional connection.
Final output
The wedding film & featured frames.
Get in touch
Bring me into your project.
If you need someone who will actually think about your brief before picking up a camera, plan the production properly, and stay with it until the final frame makes sense, that is what I do. Brand films, destination shoots, concept productions, creative direction. I take on a small number of projects at a time.
Get in touchNext chapter · III