Pakistan, India come together for special Independence Day message

Arré and Teeli have collaborated to create the first digital short film

KARACHI/MUMBAI: India and Pakistan's leading digital platform Arré and Teeli has collaborated to co-produce, co-write, and co-create the first digital short filmed across Delhi and Karachi, to celebrate Independence Day for India on the 15th of August and for Pakistan, on the 14th of August, stated a press release.

The collaboration is an attempt to engage with shared cultural values like food, language, and social relationships, rather than the politics that has shaped the current narrative.

SCREENGRAB

The short film explores the possibility of a personal relationship between young people in these two countries and tries to ask the question: What would happen if one of us got a chance to befriend someone across the border? Would the countries’ political and social history come in the way? Is the sarhad more than just a geographical construct demarcating territory?

Matched! captures the unlikely friendship between an Indian girl from Amritsar and a Pakistani boy from Lahore, made possible through a dating app. Lahore and Amritsar are only 50 kilometres apart – and yet, are separated by more than just geography.

SCREENGRAB

So what happens when two people who only associate India with Bollywood and Pakistan with Coke Studio, strike a conversation? A friendship evolves, similarities are discovered, differences are cast aside, and by the end of it, you’re left wondering what makes them so different from us.

The film was simultaneously shot in in Karachi and New Delhi by members of the two teams and every attempt was made to deliver a film that is not one country’s version of the other, but a joint expression of two neighbours.

SCREENGRAB

Sharan Saikumar, Creative Director Arré, said in a statement, “Matched! is a product of the digital age. It suggests that even though our countries and politics may falter, as people we can always be true.”

Gul Zaib Shakeel, Head Writer, Teeli, went on to add, “The fact that content from either side of the border resonates with the other is testament to how truly similar we are at the core. This is what the video is about."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=fSMIxvHHhac

Have something to add to the story? Share it in the comments below.