GOWRI MANICKAVASAGAM
Have you noticed that the people we meet unexpectedly are the ones who end up becoming such an important part of our lives? The lockdown put the brakes on social meetings but even in these tough times, we’ve managed to stay more connected than ever before and MX Player is bringing audiences the story of one such unusual friendship that blossomed during the lockdown.
Amazon presents ‘Balcony Buddies’, an MX Special Interactive Film is about an accidental friendship between two strangers in lockdown who have only one thing in common – a balcony facing each other and it celebrates their lockdown friendship like never before.
Enabling viewers to decide on the course of the story, MX Player is the only homegrown OTT platform to introduce you to this new wave of storytelling. Sunanda (played by Aisha Ahmed) is bored out of her wits in lockdown and Yoga is her only savior until one day she notices a stranger across the balcony imitating her asanas. Just when she is about to get creeped out, the stranger asks her if she could teach him Yoga. Thus begins the tale of Sunanda and Prateek (essayed by Amol Parashar), aka the Balcony Buddies.
Along with an interesting narrative, the film’s interactivity feature lets you make choices on behalf of the protagonists. From Prateek’s yoga look to Sunanda’s gifts, every few minutes, the film gives viewers two options to choose from that will navigate the story in a direction chosen by the viewer.
Speaking about the same, Aisha Ahmed said, “I do resonate with Sunanda. I love making friends, so during the lockdown I would randomly wave at people from my building’s terrace just for some human interaction. Amol and I have known each other for a while now so it made filming this piece easy and fun. It’s a beautiful take on how you can find friends in the most surprising ways and I hope the audience sees it as a breath of fresh air. It celebrates Friendship Day in its truest sense and the interactivity element makes it all the more fun for the viewer.”
Amol Parashar said, “Usually people think making new friends in lockdown is rather difficult, which is partly true but I feel that if one just looks in the right place or just makes that extra effort to greet their neighbor, a lot can happen. This film is a lighthearted take along the same lines and I am very happy to be a part of it.”
The interactivity feature is an innovation in modern storytelling that allows the viewer to change the course of action for the lead characters and that is a novel concept which will entice more users to watch the film.
Are you ready to take a peek into Sunanda and Prateek’s friendship? We know we are! So download the MX Player app now and stream the interactive film for free, starting 1st August.
Watch the trailer now – https://bit.ly/BalconyBuddies_Trailer
