THE JOURNEY OF INDIAN TRUCK ART
DOCUMENTARY TEAM Concept and Research Produced by
Shantanu Suman Talkies Films (Mumbai)
Directed by
Shantanu Suman, Istling Mirche
Director of Photography
Istling Mirche, Shantanu Suman
Music Director Written by
Atif Afzal Shreedavy Babuji
Post Production
The Cutting Crew (Mumbai)
Audio Producer
Radioactive Productions
Narrator Chief Editor Assistant Editors Art Director
Website Facebook page Twitter
Bapi Bit Raju Pandit Sanjay Thakore, Vinay Uduta, Mithun Swamy Shantanu Suman
www.projecthornplease.com projecthornplease hornpleasedoc
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The truck is my life. This world doesn’t matter to me, for my truck is what makes my world. And when my life would come to an end one day, my truck is what’ll make my hearse.
Mohammad Abbas, J&K truck driver
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CONTENTS SYNOPSIS 04 SHANTANU SUMAN 06 ISTLING MIRCHE 07 SHREEDAVY BABUJI 08 PHOTO GALLERY 09 PRESS RELEASE 13
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Top: Using spray paint on a truck cabin Bottom: Hand-painted lion on the back of a truck in Sirhind.
HORN PLEASE Horn Please is a documentary that encapsulates various aspects of an age-old folk art form of India — the TRUCK ART, an art form that makes journeys through the dusty highways of India, incredible in more ways than one. With a kaleidoscope of bright paints, motifs, typography and some unique couplets, these Indian trucks take you on a rather colorful journey of the diverse cultures and beliefs of the country. The designs painted on the trucks do not merely stand for aesthetic purposes, but they also attempt to depict religious, sentimental, and emotional viewpoints of everyone related to the truck industry. This documentary focuses on the origin and evolution of truck art, and how it influences not just the world of art, but also the lives of its artists and the truckers who interact with it on a daily basis. At its heart, Horn Please investigates on whether the once-accepted type of art as a unique form of expression, will survive the test of time in this era of capitalism. projecthornplease.com / 04
The title of the documentary — Horn Please — is derived from a message seen behind most of the trucks in India. It is a signal for the vehicles behind the trucks to blow the horn before overtaking. The sheer exposure of the signage has led it to become a popular phrase among Indians. The inception of this project goes back to an original idea for a thesis project by Shantanu Suman, a graphic design graduate student at the University of Florida. While at UF, Shantanu spent around 10 months doing bibliographical research and trying to find published scholarly papers on the subject. When he realized that nothing much had been
documented about the Indian Truck Art, he decided to travel to India for a detailed research. During the summer of 2012, Shantanu traveled to India in search of various truck artists and a lot of others who were related to the industry. In India, he was joined by two of his friends, Istling Mirche and Shreedavy Babuji, and together they began their journey to discover all that they could about the Truck Art in India. Despite being accompanied by limitations of time, money and high-end equipment, the documentation of the research was not given up on. The goal was to conduct field research, document it using the visual media, and to gather maximum amount of information to support a documentary film. Seven states across India were covered in 45 days, over 45 people interviewed, and about
A decorated truck in Jodhpur
160 GB of data was collected in the form of video footage and still photographs and notes. During their journey they were able to exchange ideas with a myriad of individuals, including truck painters, art historians, designers, transporters, truck drivers, and typographers. Their research showed them that in a developing nation like India, owning a vehicle itself is a matter of huge pride and distinction. It is a mark of achievement. However no truck is left to look bare as only a vehicle serving its intended purpose. The investment made to beautify the truck is always dependent on the trucker’s affordability. It can be made either garish or comparatively simple, however, sheer peer pressure makes no trucker want to be left out from what can at times be, an innocent showing of one-upmanship. projecthornplease.com / 05
SHANTANU SUMAN Research & Concept, Director, Director of Photography and Art Director Contact Details: email: sumanshantanu@gmail.com twitter: sumanshantanu
Shantanu Suman is a graphic designer from India, currently camping in Asheville and serving as the Partner + Creative Director at Open Door Designs Studio. After working as an Art Director for over six years in agencies like Publicis, McCann, Ogilvy & Mather; where he won several international and regional awards like Cannes, D&AD, Clio, AdFest, Spikes etc., Shantanu left the corporate world to study design. And he landed in the abundantly sunny Florida. While pursuing M.F.A. from the University of Florida, his affection towards vernacular street art made Shantanu projecthornplease.com / 06
realize the potential waiting for him to work on a subject that had suffered lack of documentation since its inception, the Indian Truck Art. A 45-day trip across India, extensive research, elaborate interviews and collaboration with friends is what it took to craft Horn Please. His design and documentation work related to the truck art of India has been recognized by several international publications including CNN travel, designboom, PSFK, Communication Arts, Creative Review and a MoMA journal. Occasionally you can find Shantanu wandering through stores admiring nice packaging designs or working on his new bucket list of places to travel.
ISTLING MIRCHE Director, Director of Photography and Post Production Supervisor Contact Details: email: justalkies@gmail.com
Istling Mirche is the Founder and Director of a Mumbai based production house, Talkies Films. Istling is an ad filmmaker with some leading brands in his portfolio like Titan, Brittania, ITC, P&G, Tata Sky, and JSW Steel. He started his journey as a director with an anti-child labor spot for Rotaract Club, which won him a lot accolades & industry awards. His work has also won him a Silver Lion at the prestigious Cannes Festival.
of Carnatic music and performing arts. He even worked as a Mural salesman in his early days in Mumbai. These experiences shaped up his keen interest in art forms & cultural nuances, which led him to jump at the first opportunity to do some work in this area when he heard about Shantanu’s thoughts about documenting the Indian Truck Art. Horn Please stands to be his first documentary film.
Istling hails from Kamalnagar, a quaint little village in south of India. From early on he has been an ardent fan projecthornplease.com / 07
SHREEDAVY BABUJI Scriptwriter and Post Production Supervisor Contact Details: email: shreedavy@gmail.com twitter: shreedavy
A seasoned copywriter and a creative curator with over eight years of international and regional expertise in the communications business, Shreedavy Babuji has developed advertising campaigns for various leading brands like Citibank, J&J, Lipton, Filmfare, Bajaj etc. Currently a Freelance Copywriter based out of New York, her former experience includes working for renowned names in Advertising such as DDB Mudra, Leo Burnett and Publicis Communications in Mumbai, India. Her work in the field of mass communications has been recognized at Cannes Advertising Festival, AdFest, Abbys, Uppercase projecthornplease.com / 08
magazine, Kyoorius and several international advertising and art platforms. Great design turns her on just as much as Pablo Neruda does. When she’s not working on brands, she’s usually found shopping for her favorite ones. “Apart from being a one-of-a-kind project in my portfolio, Horn Please has been a significant learning experience from the word go.”
Top: Various stages of a truck body construction, Sirhind Bottom: Construction of a truck's cabin, Sirhind
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Top: Hand-painted planks on trucks, Sirhind Bottom: A decorated truck in Jodhpur
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Top: Hand-painted typography on the front of a truck in Mumbai Bottom: Raja Gharu adding finishing touches to a panihari painting, Jodhpur
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Top: Hand-painted typography on the front of a truck in Mumbai Bottom: Istling and Shantanu at the back of a semi-painted truck, Jodhpur
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CNN Travel AutoMoto Film Festival
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Asheville Citizen Times Museum of Art + Design, Miami
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Uppercase Magazine Gainesville Scene
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