'Happy Bangalore' to be back soon

Gone viral

A few days ago, a video on YouTube, which showcased youngsters dancing in the City to Pharrell Williams’ catchy Oscar-nominated song ‘Happy’, went viral. 

Titled ‘Happy Bangalore’, this video received close to two lakh views in a span of just a few days.

However, the video, which was made to promote Construkt Festival, a start-up festival, was taken off the site by the organisers of the festival leaving many Bangaloreans disappointed.

But the makers of the video, Farhan Hussain and Alex Jimmy, two final-year visual communication students of St Joseph’s College of Arts and Science, assure that it will be back soon. 

“The official version is already there on Vimeo and should be up on YouTube soon now that the festival is over,” explains Farhan, who along with Alex and friends Chadi and Muhammed, made the video.

“However, there is an unofficial one on Youtube already uploaded by a fan,” he adds.
But as they say certain things happen for the best. So even though the video was removed off YouTube, certain scenes from it were made part of the ‘Happy India’ video, which showcased youngsters dancing in Delhi and Mumbai as well. 

And the best part was that ‘Happy India’ is constantly being showcased on VH1. So Alex and Farhan cannot be happier! 

Recalling their journey so far right from scratch, Alex says, “The organisers of Construkt saw the videos that we had made earlier on YouTube and contacted us.”

Farhan recalls, “They basically wanted a video that would go viral.” So the duo decided to shoot a happy-go-lucky song about namma City just in line with the others in the ‘Happy’ series like ‘Happy London’, ‘Happy New York’ etc.

“We had always wanted to make a video like this and when a song like ‘Happy’ came along, things just fell in place,” explains Alex. 

Speaking more on the ‘Happy Bangalore’ video, Alex explains, “We just went out one morning with out any plan in mind and captured the entire video in and around the Central Business District.” 

Farhan says, “In fact, many people have commented on the video and asked us why couldn’t we include areas like Jayanagar and Basavangudi. The problem was that we didn’t have enough time.”

Soon after the video went viral, the two were approached by Viacom18.

“So our footage was made part of ‘Happy India’,” says Farhan.

“In fact, Pharrell Williams has seen the ‘Happy India’ video himself and it’s on his website,” says Farhan, who had earlier made his own version of the ‘Harlem Shake’ which had received over 35,000 views. 

And it’s just the beginning for the two youngsters as they plan to make more videos in future. Ask them if these will based in Bangalore and Alex says, “Why not? After all, Bangalore is one of our all-time favourite places.”