‘Stay home, stay safe’, the now-ubiquitous statement has been widely used since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, when life as we know it is thrown out of gear, things can get complicated. What if there is a death in the close family and one is unable to travel, and has to cope with loss without a sense of closure? Unseen , a mini series now streaming on YouTube, presents darker stories that emerged during the lockdown.
In one episode, a young woman is at a loss to deal with an untimely pregnancy, without access to medical help. The idea for such stories presented through Unseen , produced by Boundless Media, came up after the first month of lockdown. “Everyone has been impacted in some way. One could be trapped in a dysfunctional home, dealing with loss of income or have other issues,” says Natasha Malpani Oswal, who founded Boundless Media to create and present stories for the new media; she is also one of the co-writers of Unseen .
A snapshot from an episode of Unseen
Natasha had earlier authored the book Boundless , a collection of poems, and has a podcast by the same name. She briefly worked in cancer research after a Master’s in Immunology at the University of Oxford. She then pursued an MBA at Stanford, where she discovered that storytelling was what she enjoyed the most.
Rooted in reality
The different episodes of Unseen were directed by Abhay Puri and Vivek Joshi and each episode stars one actor — Akashdeep Arora, Aditya Pandey, Kokila Beri, Tanya Lokwani and Rea Malhotra Mukhtyar. The actors were auditioned following a casting call and once selected, rehearsals were done remotely and the episodes filmed in the respective actor’s home by a friend or family member, and later edited by Boundless Media.
The writing was collaborative and spearheaded by Abhay Puri, says Natasha. “We wanted to present stories inspired by real-life happenings that were being shared on our WhatsApp groups,” she explains. The episodes of seven to 10-minute duration were shot in Kanpur, Manali, Bhopal and Mumbai during the lockdown, and highlight stories pertaining to mental health, anxiety, grief and privilege.
Two episodes of Unseen are up on YouTube. The forthcoming episodes will present the migrant crisis through the lens of a journalist and the impact of the pandemic on a doctor’s family.
In contrast to Unseen is Objectified , a series of two-to-three-minute animated videos that poke fun at lockdown. Imagine a pair of running shoes wondering why they haven’t been used? Or the microwave and toaster wondering why they are being overused, and go on to discuss work sharing and gender equations. “We found that the animated series could be an interesting way of putting forth the changes in our lives and even to discuss the state of our economy,” says Natasha.
(Both Unseen and Objectified can be viewed on Boundless Media channel on YouTube.)
