About
Manhole Collective
The collective’s objective is to create experiences and narratives that would communicate the difficulties and inhumanity being faced by manual scavengers in India, hoping to ignite conversations and spread awareness about this topic. The aim is to highlight the dangers they face while entering hazardous manholes without any safety equipment or protective gear, and the numerous deaths that occurred over the years.
Manhole - The Project at Large
‘Manhole’ is a four-phase incremental project involving i) an Animated Short Film ii) a VR Film iii) a Graphic Novel and iv) an Animated Feature Film. VR film is the short form reality segment of the Project.
Why VR Film?
Experiencing the film in 360° virtual reality (VR) is to immerse oneself into the spatio-temporal reality of the characters in the story. You would find yourself standing next to the characters and experiencing the story unfold around you. This allows you to experience the world of Amitabh, Bunty and Billu as if you are one of the characters in the story, fully present in the story-environment. By facilitating a VR Film experience of a manual scavenger, ‘Manhole’ wishes to initiate a reconciliatory process in Indian society where compassion and empathy for the ones on the margins become a driver of social change.
This VR experience will have real-time 6 degree-of-freedom (6DOF) which allows the viewer to move around and explore the environment while experiencing the story. The film also explores the current state-of-the-art in audio experience. Our story environment would have 3D spatial audio. It provides an atmosphere where the sound responds to the direction of the viewer’s point-of-view.
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.