Boy meets girl. They fall in love, get married, and have a child... all in the span of a traffic jam.
After inspiring countless internet memes and enjoying a certain amount of notoriety, the traffic-prone Silk Board junction in Bengaluru has now inspired a short film: ‘Silk Board, A Traffic Love Story’. The 12-minute film, which will be released on Friday on YouTube, has already garnered a lot of interest on social media, more so among the lakhs of commuters who spend a considerable amount of time in the now infamous jams that have made the junction a landmark of sorts.
In fact, it’s the numerous jokes on the traffic gridlocks that inspired director Santhosh Gopal. “People say Silk Board alli samsarane madbahudu (you can spend a lifetime there) . This is a satire on the traffic situation in Bengaluru,” he said.
The premise of the film involves Prakash, who is stuck in his car at the junction. His father calls him to ask when he will reach home because his prospective bride and her family are waiting for him. When the girl’s family hears that Prakash is at Silk Board, they figure he won’t be reaching home any time soon and decide to leave.
It is at this juncture that the hero meets Mithila, another harried commuter at the traffic jam. Their eyes meet, and a love story unfolds. At each point that their cars stop in the traffic, they exchange details (company names, experience), and Mithila suggests that Prakash meets her family to take the match forward. Prakash points out that the traffic may never let that happen, and the couple get married amid the jam. By the time they reach Prakash’s house, they are blessed with a baby, and Prakash’s father is too sleepy to hear the story.
But how did they manage to shoot a film in the middle of the chaos? “This is one of the most difficult shoots I have done in my life. We shot for seven days from morning to evening in traffic. This is one junction where traffic stops for long durations, so we took advantage of it,” said Mr. Gopal, who has made four comical videos so far.
Rakesh Maiya, who plays the male lead, had another interesting detail to share.
“Most people there [in the jam] did not know we were shooting a film. They actually thought the proposal and wedding were true and started taking videos. Many of them congratulated us on our marriage!” he said.
