Shot with phones, short films highlight Maken’s ‘good work’

32 films shot by ‘community reporters’ part of campaign strategy.

3 min readNew DelhiApr 1, 2014 03:15 AM IST

Ajay Maken campaigns in the capital. (Praveen Khanna)

Thirty-two short films, shot using mobile phones and camcorders, capture different aspects of work done by Congress candidate from the New Delhi Lok Sabha constituency, Ajay Maken. These films shot by “seven community reporters” — who are either college students or part of the Youth Congress cell – will be uploaded on social media as part of Maken’s campaign strategy, besides being shown on campaign vehicles (tempos mounted with LED TVs), which will do the rounds of his constituency.

According to Maken’s social media team, these films have tried to capture work done by Maken, which range from how a large part of the New Delhi constituency got gas pipelines and don’t have to depend on government subsidy for LPG under his tenure as MP or how the ‘Come and Play’ scheme launched under his term as sports minister is helping young athletes.

“The 32 films are part of a pilot phase and have got approval from the Delhi Chief Electoral Officer. These films have been shot and edited by the community reporters,” Maken said.

All the films – with durations of less than two minutes — were shot between January and March.

The seven community reporters were given training on how to shoot using phones by team leader Vaibhav, who, in turn, got training from a professional photographer.

One video features Arunima Sinha, the first woman amputee to scale Mount Everest. In the video, she speaks of the help provided to her by Maken when she lost her leg in a railway accident. “If I am standing on my feet, it’s because of Ajay Maken,” she says.

Speaking on how the idea was conceived, Vaibhav said the plan came about during a party meeting in Haryana. “It was felt that since everyone has a smartphone these days, it would be easy to implement it,” he said.

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Varun Miglani from Patel Nagar, part of the community reporters’ team, said he owned a guesthouse in Paharganj and the fact that it was not sealed during Maken’s tenure as UD minister prompted him to pitch in. “Most of us live in New Delhi constituency,” Jasraj Basoya, a resident of Sarojini Nagar who is a law student and part of the community reporters’ team, said.

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