Silk Board traffic jams inspire romantic film

A 12-minute film by Santhosh Gopal highlights every Bengalurean's biggest nightmare: choc-o-bloc roads.

Simply called Silk Board, its story goes thus: Prakash (Rakesh Maiya) is stuck in a jam at Silk Board junction and his father calls him about a prospective bride and her family waiting for him at home.

On being told Prakash is at Silk Board, the bride's party leaves. But here, in the midst of blaring horns and a maddening crowd, pretty Mithila (Suvin Valson) grabs his attention.

They exchange pleasantries and slowly get to know each other. Prakash proposes to Mithila and they get married, all in the middle of the jam. By the time they reach home, the couple have a baby and are excitedly sharing the news with Prakash's father, but he is too sleepy to pay any attention.

Santhosh says, "The idea came to me last December. I found Rakesh and Suvin for the lead roles and we shot the film on January 30. We soon realised we might need to shoot more and continued in March."

What triggered the idea? "Many of us are frustrated in traffic and say, 'By the time I reach home, I'll be old'. What better way to talk about a daily struggle than in a humorous manner?" he explains.

Santhosh believes everyone connects to comedy.

Rakesh remembers how bad traffic has often disrupted his shoot schedules. "Also, I used to work with an MNC and had to travel through Silk Board regularly, so the story had a personal connect," he says.

Santhosh's family lives in Varthur and heading to the city was an everyday challenge. "I moved to Chamarajpet and now visit them once a week. Traffic is that painful," he says.

Challenging task

It wasn't easy to shoot, given the traffic at Silk Board.

"Whenever a scene had to be reshot, we would end up with another crowd, since the traffic landscape keeps changing. I would often worry we would get hit if people thought we were stalling traffic and picked a fight with us," says Rakesh.

Funny moments

While the marriage scenes were being shot, passers-by thought a real-life ceremony was taking place.

People started rushing to the couple to greet them, and take selfies, videos and photographs.

"We had to come up with another story. I told them I had proposed to Suvin at Silk Board and we were reliving the moment for some good photographs," says Rakesh.

"We are elated the film has got 2.10 lakh views in just six days. The objective of the film is to make the authorities take note and work towards better traffic management."
Santhosh Gopal, Director