As Chennai celebrated its 385th birthday in 2024, we asked ourselves how to capture and resonate with the city’s spirit for the second year of our city-wide celebration.

The answer? Life in a Day of Chennai, a visually compelling video that portrays the city’s essence through an innovative split-screen format.

Made of Chennai is a city-wide campaign initiated by The Hindu in 2023 and was instrumental in leading and rolling out the festivities for Chennai’s birthday every year.

The 40-day celebration reinforced the publication’s standing as the city’s foremost chronicler. The campaign touched all the passion points of the city, including everything from digital contests to immersive on-ground experiences, striking a chord with audiences of all ages, backgrounds, and beliefs.

For the second edition of MOC, when we conceptualised the theme for 2024, we reflected on how the city offers us a lifetime of experiences in a single day.

One wakes up and ends the day in Chennai with a new experience: starting with fishermen heading out to sea, morning walks alongside dogs, stories unfolding during commutes, conversations brewing in local cafes, picking up groceries on the way back home, and satisfying midnight biryani cravings — life in a day of Chennai is truly a story which was waiting to be told.

Chennai is also a city where all kinds of contrasts — be it tradition and modernity, chaos, and serenity — coexist effortlessly; it’s where the aroma of freshly brewed filter coffee mingles with the street-side aroma of briyani stalls. Our aim was to capture these contrasts too, as complementary threads that define the city’s unique character.

Crafting the video

Capturing a theme as profound as “Life in a Day of Chennai” required a one-of-a-kind approach — one that celebrates every single facet of the city, from grand landmarks to its unnoticed, smaller moments, without overlooking any detail.

This is why we conceptualised a split-screen format to help the film present perspectives that beautifully showcase the city, frame by frame.

A split-screen video format is a filmmaking technique in which the screen is divided into separate frames, each displaying different visuals or perspectives simultaneously. It adds depth to storytelling by allowing viewers to engage with diverse narratives, emotions, or timelines simultaneously, creating a dynamic and layered viewing experience.

The film prioritises the visual montages of Chennai’s diverse people, places, and passions — the circle at Anna Nagar signal completes its journey at the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium, where the iconic shape of the Goli soda bottle mirrors the structure of Anna Nagar Tower Park. A cricket ball, hit by players on the street, soars into the sky, almost reaching the planes above.

The metro trains, diving into tunnels, transform into boats gliding through the water, symbolising the city’s unique fusion of movement, culture, and transformation.

The film also features a musical from The Hindu archives stripped down to a single lyric line, “Endrum pathinaaru, enga Chennai paaru” (“Always sweet 16, take a look at our Chennai”).

What we achieved

We told a diverse and vast story in a unique way, which importantly allowed the audience to glimpse moments from their day while they watched it.

The film was widely appreciated by viewers, generating overwhelmingly favourable feedback that highlighted the emotional connection of the content, creating a strong wave of positive sentiment around the brand. Some of the numbers included: 

• 10 million views.

• 9.6 million impressions.

• 3.7 million accounts reached.

• Over 250,000 engaged with the film on social media.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .