"Even my film's website is futuristic" - Harman Baweja

It is not just Love Story 2050, season's biggest and most spectacular release, which is on the right path of being a 'futuristic' launch for Harman Baweja. Even film's website is, as per the newcomer. Harman Baweja talks to Joginder Tuteja about the 'futuristic' website.

Why the effort?
Why not, I would ask? For a movie which is set in future, has a sci-fi theme, talks about flying cars, 200 storey buildings, a revamped Mumbai, robots, a love story and of course red hair (chuckles), you can't have a mushy looking conventional website with red rose petals dominating the screen! You can't have a fluorescent/glossy look and feel to justify a love story which belongs to a different era. And of course, you can't have captions of 'When Two Hearts Meet etc. etc. etc.'!

So what was the idea?
Clichéd as may it sound but the fact was that while working on the promotional design for the film, I was set thinking around how to make the film's website turn out to be a cut above the rest! How could I actually have it set in a futuristic mode? How could I have it designed in a way that the love story theme could be amalgamated with a setting 40 years from now? Net net, how could it turn out to be different (in true sense) from anything that surfers would have seen in a Bollywood film website.

Cool idea, but how about execution?
I was in talks with Bollywood Hungama team for promotional tie ups. This is when the suggestion around designing a site like this came up. I had a vision, they had the skills and together we sat down on a plan. I was amazed with the way the team out there started putting the plan on paper and then from paper to actual visuals.

We deliberated upon the kind of stuff we wanted to have on a very frequent basis and in just a matter of 2 months, we were ready with the final version. Yes, 2 months sounds a little on the higher side here but then we have to also see that this wasn't a basic HTML/flash website for a regular film which could perhaps be readied in a jiffy. We were talking about something which hadn't been attempted before, just like the movie, and considering that, I am amazed that we could still get so much done so soon.

What makes the website special?
See it to believe it, that's all I would say for now (smiles)! The moment you enter it, you would realize it for yourself that you have marched into a different space altogether, pun intended. And by the way, it is not going to be like 'one single click and voila, I am in the site'. You would have to have a permutation and combinations of clicks to enable you to crack a code which would allow you success.

A friend of mine took 2 minutes to crack it though. He created a record - well, that of being the slowest cracker ever! And guess what, he is an IT professional! I am sure regular surfers would be able to do it much faster.

Movie v/s Website
Website took 2 months to make; the film took us 3 years. Doesn't that tell the tale? The point here is, don't try to judge the enormity of the movie through the website. The website is great but at the end of the day, it is mainly a promotional vehicle. What you would see on the big screen would certainly be far more grandeur than what you see on your 14-inch monitor. The clips you see on the website are mainly 2D while in movie there are ton leads of 3D graphics. To put it right, the website here mainly acts as a teaser to give you an idea around what bigger to expect!

How about some website promotion?
Yes, for the first time in the history of Indian cinema, especially after the advent of websites being made for Hindi movies, we have great plans to promote the website itself. We have designed 15 second teasers around the website itself and these would be out on all prominent websites. These teasers would indicate what to expect from the Love Story 2050 website which we are making LIVE soon. We are arriving with a bang and once the website would be up, we won't be leaving it just till that. We would be continuing to upload newer stuff on a frequent basis to make it the most happening site of the season!

Check out Love Story 2050's official website by logging on to www.lovestory2050.com

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