"A simple conversation between two strangers ended up doing what many high-decibel, big-budget campaigns fail to do: it made people quietly emotional. When ‘Chhoti Si Doori’ went live, one comment kept appearing across platforms: ‘Why am I crying after watching such a simple conversation?’ That question told us we had struck a chord.
The film stemmed from a clear brief by Urban Company to highlight the hidden bias around migration. While we often celebrate people moving to cities as MBAs, engineers, or CAs, we view the same journey very differently when it’s made by a blue-collar worker, even though both are driven by the same desire for a better tomorrow. As a platform, Urban Company serves customers while also working with service professionals they call it ‘partners.’ Respecting the dignity of labour is central to their philosophy, and this film became another expression of that belief.
While writing the script, we were clear that the story had to centre on two people in the same space. If we were exploring two kinds of migration, they needed to exist together on screen. The idea was simple: place them in one room and let a conversation unfold naturally, allowing the bias to surface on its own. That led us to make both characters from the same district. Dialect became the connector. Every region has its own linguistic cues, and we chose something that felt authentic, rooted in Eastern UP or Western Bihar.
Our team explored multiple options, even debated using a word for ‘bucket,’ before eventually landing on ‘Buharna’, a word that means ‘to sweep.’ It was familiar enough to be understood, but not common enough to feel generic. That one word became the turning point of the film. When the Urban Company partner says it and the white-collar migrant recognises it, a shared origin quietly surfaces. Then comes the line that shifts the tone of the conversation: ‘I am the same as you.’ The pause, the hesitation—it reveals the bias that follows, which is precisely what the film is questioning. The jobs may be different, but the journey is the same.
Director Shachi Malhotra kept the shoot simple and unobtrusive. The structure was planned, but the actors were given space to perform naturally, with the camera rolling as the conversation unfolded. Some of the most effective moments weren’t scripted, including a shot where one man sits on a chair while the other is on the floor. That physical distance stayed with us and later inspired the title Chhoti Si Doori, symbolising the gap in perception between two otherwise similar lives.
The film was shot in a single day in late April. We started early in the morning and wrapped by sunset. From pitch to release, it was a tight 40–50 day journey. Selling such a film is never easy. A script with no celebrities, no visual spectacle, and no overt drama, just two people talking, demands a lot of trust. Urban Company placed that trust in us.
Even before the release, we sensed the film was working. The offline editor watched it with tears in their eyes, and the music composer, Bharat, shared it with friends before it was finished, simply asking them to watch it. Those reactions confirmed that the emotion was landing. For me, the success of ‘Chhoti Si Doori’ goes beyond numbers. It lies in whether the film sparked reflection around dignity, labour, and migration. If it helped start that conversation, it did what it set out to do.”
About Neeraj Kanitkar
Neeraj Kanitkar is the Co-Founder and Executive Creative Director (ECD) of Fundamental. He brings over 15 years of experience shaping brands and leading creative teams, with a portfolio that includes high-profile campaigns for Facebook (Meta), McDonald’s, Lenovo, and other leading brands. Before Fundamental, he held senior creative leadership roles at Taproot Dentsu and DDB Mudra.
Advertisements I loved in 2025
• British Airways: ‘Reflections’
Best Campaigns
WhatsApp: ‘Baatan Hi Baatan Mein’
WhatsApp: ‘No-Text User Guides’
Jockey: ‘JKY Groove’
(As told to Yash Bhatia)
