“It took me three weeks of pre-production to understand how it will work,” saysVarma. There were two fabrics that were considered for the body suits, and onewas rejected for it had too many wrinkles and was shiny. The wrinkles wouldhave shown when the characters moved, thereby shattering the illusion of animation.“So we chose the more practical, thicker fabric,” Varma explains.
The production team divided the outfit into two parts: the body and the head.The body part of the outfit was stuffed with foam in some places, while thehead was attached separately. To make it look bigger than a human head, aharder material called Perspex was used, which in turn was stuffed with foam(with scope for ventilation).
If one wishes to understand the size of this head, here’s a fact: a human headwould typically reach up to the mouth level of this giant Zoozoo head. “We keptthe hands and legs thin, which is why we cast women – and occasionally children– wearing the costumes,” says Varma. The thin limbs, contrasted with bigbellies and a bulbous head, all add to the illusion that these creatures are‘smaller’ than humans. Sets were created to suit the size of the Zoozoos.
Cinematically, this ‘size’ was a trick: the creatures look smaller than theyactually are on screen, to portray a different world of sorts. For this, thespeed of shooting was altered: Nirvana shot it in a high-speed format to makethem look the size that they do.
Furthermore, simple sets/backdrops were created and spray painted with neutralGreys – a colour of choice so that attention isn’t diverted from the maincharacters. For a supposedly ‘outdoor’ shot, even the shadow of a Zoozoo waskept ‘live’ and not done in post production: it was painted in a darker shadeof grey on the ground. An even lighting was maintained throughout.

There was virtually no post production work done.

The films were shot by Nirvana in Cape Town, South Africa, with the help of alocal production house there, called Platypus. Incidentally, the samecombination of people also worked on the ‘Happy to Help’ series last year. Whenasked whether Cape Town is fast becoming a tourist spot for Vodafone andNirvana, Varma laughs, saying, “Oh no! It’s just that we are very comfortablewith the team there and know what sort of work to expect from them.”
Nagpal adds here that the production cost had to be minimal for unveiling sucha large number of commercials. “Otherwise, our production costs would exceedmedia spends,” he quips.