Some projects come with time to breathe.
Some come with a neat timeline, enough prep days, and a comfortable delivery window.
And then some arrive a week before release, with five language, multiple ratios, several specs, a full food film to crack, and the quiet confidence that says, “You’ll figure it out, no?”
So naturally, we did.
Our Mother’s Day spot for Barbeque Nation came to us barely a week before the delivery date. The idea was warm, simple and full of heart. A film that celebrated the first phase of motherhood, where cravings arrive with full drama, excitement sits quietly under every bite, and food becomes part of a much bigger reveal.
Once the treatment note was handed over and the confirmation came in, the STOM engine switched on at full speed. Our teams across Bangalore and Mumbai had to begin work almost immediately. We had a PPM to lock, casting to crack, production to put together, food styling to figure, menus to finalise, and an entire film to prep, shoot and post before the week was out.
Tiny detail: we essentially had 3 days for prep and shoot, and 2 days for post-production.
We soon realised this was probably one of the few films where chaat was not a passing table item, but the main product being showcased. Chaat is layered, colourful, messy, textured, wet, crunchy and full of movement. It rarely gets treated with the same visual care as biryani, grills, desserts or lavish buffet spreads, which made it exciting for us.
Branding was another key part of the brief. Barbeque Nation wanted the film to feel unmistakably theirs, not like it could belong to any restaurant space. So we worked on the details. Plates were engraved with branding, script tweaks were made and mutually agreed upon, and branded elements were added into the background in places where they did not originally exist at the outlet.
And then came the very real production clock.
The outlet had an actual 100-person booking at 7 PM, which meant we had to wrap by 6 PM. No extensions. No slow drift into overtime. The restaurant had to go back to being a restaurant.
Every food shot, performance beat, branded frame and setup had to be completed within that window. Our Producer held the production together with clarity, keeping the pace sharp while ensuring the team had what they needed. Our Director protected the warmth, playfulness and emotional rhythm of the film, even inside a schedule that left very little room for indulgence.
Within eight hours, we wrapped.
In the next two days, the film moved through edit, music composition, grade, online, sound design, dubs in multiple languages, versioning, ratios, specs and final deliveries. A full post-production marathon, handled at sprint speed.
What made this project special was not just the turnaround. It was that the film still held its feeling. It still had warmth. It still had appetite. It still had charm. And it still had that final emotional beat that made everything land.
A huge thank you to Barbeque Nation for trusting us and working so closely with us through the process. That kind of trust allows the work to move faster, sharper and with more heart. And those are the relationships we cherish most.
