Beautiful Sunsets & Safaris in Joshua Tree's Scenic Tata Spot

Joshua Tree, the Mumbai based production house recently filmed in the South Indian state of Karnataka for a lifestyle and action/ off-roading TVC for Tata Motors. 

The spot for Tata’s cult SUV Safari Storme was created to promote the S.O.U.L campaign that stands for Safari Owners Urban League and is an extension of the existing online campaign. The idea behind the spot was to show the Safari Storme as a cult lifestyle choice and something the owners would be proud of owning, and not just as any other SUV in the market.

The idea was to showcase the Storme in unforgiving and unchartered territories where the cast through a series of lifestyle and off-roading shots would be shown discovering new trails.

Starting from scratch, the production team at first scouted locations all over India to find hidden and never seen before areas. While Sikkim in North East was chosen initially for the ruggedness and the beauty that it offers, the option had to be dropped due to weather constraints. Back on the road, both Kerala and Karnataka were explored and intensively recceed for over ten days. Finally, it was the area in and around the remote town of Chikmagalur in the state of Karnataka in South India that was chosen.

“Our boys left no stone unturned in sifting through every single corner of the State for over ten days to come up with spots that did complete justice to the film in the end. It’s an effort we are proud of and give them full credit for,” explained Joshua Upputuru, Founder and executive producer at Joshua Tree.

Going past the location hunting was just the beginning of the challenges on the shoot. Given that it encompassed getting equipment and a mammoth crew to cliffs as high as 6500 above sea level on one day and deep into the forest with practically no roads to get to the virgin waterfalls on the next, the production team really had to pull all stops to make things happen.

The action sequences through the film and towards the climax were shot with precision drivers practicing for a good four to five hours, to make sure the final shot came out right in the end. Also, shooting deep inside the Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary, the crew was racing against time since no shooting was allowed after dark. 

Base camps were set up in different areas due to the inaccessibility of the final location and everything from equipment, to food, to crew was transported back and forth.

“We shot for three extremely long days, starting on location at 4:00am in the morning going on till sundown each day. Scouting the forest for the perfect spot, for that perfect shot and to get it in the time that we did was only made possible because of the organized effort of the entire team and by working tirelessly round-the-clock.

At one point we were on a cliff with winds blowing at 78Kms per hours and trying to take a shot and at another there were 10 drivers driving towards a cliff with a free fall from almost 7000ft above sea level. As exciting as it was to see these shots in the film later, it took some real time effort and we are very happy to have pulled it off.

The production capabilities of Joshua Tree were thoroughly tested during the making of the spot but it’s a proud moment when the team is able to push the limits and deliver successfully in the end. We always knew we could do it,” said Priyanka Kher, the producer for the project.

“The idea behind the commercial was to show diversity in terrain and how Safari Storme could push the limits. We’ve managed to capture the spirit of that and the locations we pulled out had a lot to do with that. Most people don’t even know that such places exist in India. 

Now having had the experience, we’d be more than happy to provide services and help anyone else who would like to shoot in Karnataka in future,” added Joshua Upputuru.