What happens when you put one crazy electronic music artiste, a skilled underwater photographer, a pool and a trippy track together? You get ‘Beast’.
Featuring Mumbai’s Randolph Correia (one half of Shaa’ir and Func and lead guitarist of Pentagram) going crazy underwater while playing a range of instruments in sync with a groovy, instrumental electronic track and shot by Bengaluru’s ace underwater photographer Bhushan Bagadia, ‘Beast’ is probably one of the most unique music videos you will ever see. With Bhushan’s spectacular work underwater and Randolph’s fine editing skills teaming up, the video is on air on VH1 almost every other day and has garnered quite a following. Randolph and Bhushan share with MetroPlus what unleashed the ‘Beast’.
“Randolph is one of the few people a bit mad generally in life. Anything that you do with him will generally turn out to be mad,” quips Bhushan. “It was completely random. We had no idea this shoot will come together this way,” says Randolph. Bhushan agrees and gives the background story. “We were doing a photoshoot for a mutual friend’s T-shirt brand which had underwater artwork elements on some of the tees and Randolph was the model. We decided why not do the shoot underwater? So we went to Mumbai and stayed in his apartment and started work in his apartment pool. Along with the photos, we took a couple of videos for fun. We went up to the system, reviewed the footage and we immediately knew this should be made into a video!”
Randolph “We went on to shoot for two whole days. What started as just an excuse for some fun became a full-fledged project. We were pushing the limits on what’s possible and spending so much time underwater was a little difficult for me. Meanwhile, on the second day of shooting, we had an overcast sky. So Bhushan had an idea of shooting at night with a waterproof light. That’s what gave the final look in the video.”
The celebrated musician goes on to say the footage was initially intended for another song. “We shot in July and scheduled for September last year, but as the year progressed, I moved onto something else. A month ago, I went back to the footage, started editing it and it synced with this new track. For me, that was my ‘eureka’ moment! It came out beautifully. And so, ‘Beast’ was born.” Randolph adds: “It took time but we were in no hurry. We were both willing to go the extra mile and not make just another typical music video.”
Randolph says Bhushan helped him a lot while preparing for the video. “It required me to breathe out and stay calm. After a few trials, we were set to go crazy underwater.” Always one to take to water, Bhushan says this work connected well with his filmmaking background and this is not the first time he has shot a celebrity underwater. “One of my ongoing exhibition series which I’m shooting features passionate artistes underwater with everything that defines them suspended around them in the water. Called ‘Suspended Passion’, what sparked the series was a photoshoot gift I made for Grammy Award winner Ricky Kej.”
Bhushan points out: “If you look at this video, your first reaction will be wow. But the fact that we could create this in a pool with a single light goes to show you don’t really need to have a big budget or a fancy shoot. Things can happen if you just put yourself out there. Musicians should take that away from it.”
Randolph agrees. “This is primarily a big lesson for video makers. We have a lot of videos these days that spend a lot of money but the outcome isn’t interesting. A simple idea like ours can go a long way. We pushed our artistic side here and put in full integrity to the video. The fun in the pool translated into a work of art.”
Can we expect more videos like this in the future? Randolph says he has gotten fond of making videos himself and hopes to surprise music lovers. “I’ve studied art and the music video world has always fascinated me since it is part of our growing up years. I’m going to continue to connect music and technology and hopefully something good is bound to come soon.”
Meanwhile Bhushan keeps his fingers crossed. “Music is nothing new to me. From the time I was a dancer to my filmmaking, music is always there. Of course, I never thought I’ll be making music videos. This being my third one, it’s nice that we could create something different. I will not limit myself,” he sums up.
Watch ‘Beast’ on Youtube.
