Indian Air Force woos women in new ad film

The Indian Air Force (IAF) recently launched a new film titled 'Ek Ladki Hun Main'. It celebrates India's first batch of female fighter pilots.

Grey Group India is the agency behind this minute-long film that was released on YouTube on April 28, by 'Disha', the publicity cell of the IAF. The advertisement is part of a larger campaign titled 'A Cut Above', also created by Grey Group India.

The film starts with a female voice-over (VO) that alludes to all the stereotypes that continue to plague the women of India, at many levels. The VO is accompanied by empowering visuals of women in the IAF; the contrasting audio-visual narrative is interesting.

Sandipan Bhattacharyya, chief creative officer, Grey Group India, tells afaqs!, "Generally, Disha (publicity cell of the IAF) releases ad campaigns around the time of recruitment. This campaign has been launched in time with recruitment season at the IAF. The campaign attempts to invite more female candidates to apply for positions that, historically, have been perceived as those for men only..."

About the execution of the ad, he says, "The film has been shot in and around the Air Force bases in Pune, Leh, Hindon and Bidar, and the explosion shots have been shot in Pokhran."

It is interesting to note that the women in this ad film are no actors. Bhattacharyya shares, "They're all real Indian Air Force pilots. Having actors would have defeated the purpose."

The film urges women to transcend their 'home-maker role' and consider a new one - that of 'protector of homes', by enrolling in the IAF.

"... On the one hand, there was the daunting challenge of capturing the action across multiple far-flung geographies, while on the other, it was absolutely essential to not allow the magnificence of the visuals to overpower the authenticity and intent of this film," Bhattacharyya tells afaqs!, when asked about the most challenging part of shooting this ad film.

Grey's Bhattacharyya informs us that as of now, the campaign will be visible across digital media only.

For the record, Avani Chaturvedi from Madhya Pradesh , Bhawana Kanth from Bihar and Mohana Singh from Rajasthan were inducted in the IAF fighter squadron in June 2016. Their induction was historic. They are India's first three female fighter pilots.