The Indian Pocket Billiards League: Legends
Call it a repulsive habit or blame the humidity, but tactical scratching of the scrotal sack is a common sight in a tropical country like India.
And just because Cyrus Oshidar wanted to, we put this long-standing discipline in the spotlight. Big time. With an original, satirical take of our own. We actually developed it really quick. And we did do a lot with it, you'll see.
First, there was a main film, a thematic film to set context capturing the essence of the champion scrotum scratchers all over the country. Ugghhh...
While Cyrus Oshidar wrote it, I chimed in with silly billiard terms and noises.
Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_hyL71XDbA
The thematic film weaved known Billiard shots into the narrative, complemented by some great guerilla footage of ingenious ball-scratching. And introduced it as an organized league of chumps - The Indian Pocket Billiards League or The IPBL (India's IPL cricket league is massive so we used something similar sounding, ha).
And once that established the premise, I wanted to go deeper and carve out some folklore heroes. Basically, we created marquee players who are like local legends and made IPBL promo films for each.
Agency - 101 India Digital Services Private Limited
Creative Director - Cyrus Oshidar (The Bigg O)
Creative Team - Rajni Gadhvi, Ramiz Shaikh
Director - Surjo Deb
Production House - Ubik Films
First up, we developed a son of the soil, rooted in the chawls of Mumbai. (residential buildings for lower socio-economic communities)
Carromball Kamble aka The Brute, grew up playing carrom with others in his shared-housing community and went on to implement the same brute technique to pocket billiards. He's an archetype of the modern game, his methods aren't very graceful but yet, extremely effective. Local lad, a proud Loin of Lalbaug.
Carromball Kamble aka The Brute, grew up playing carrom with others in his shared-housing community and went on to implement the same brute technique to pocket billiards. He's an archetype of the modern game, his methods aren't very graceful but yet, extremely effective. Local lad, a proud Loin of Lalbaug.
His pincher is a clincher.
Secondly, we have The Monk. No one knows where and when he got the itch, but he's been scratching for over a thousand years now. A stalwart who's reached such a place of Zen that some say he scratches his balls without moving a finger. Insane.
That flapping pocket is iconic.
The films were supported by plenty of ridiculous literature that we made up on the portal itself. These were put out as lists/articles for easy consumption.
We literally made up books which defined eras and pocket billiards itself, written by ancient as well as modern greats. You may call them The Odd-ysseys of ball scratching.
We literally made up books which defined eras and pocket billiards itself, written by ancient as well as modern greats. You may call them The Odd-ysseys of ball scratching.
Going ahead, we had to immortalize the greats, and what better than trading cards! We created these ancient and modern icons. All their names are suggestive and their back stories will move you. Take the Japanese icon Ichigota for example, his name literally means itchy balls. Epic guy. Then, the terrible twins, Dang Lin & Jang Lin, get it?
In these modern times, all top players come with controversy. So, to show the legal boundaries of pocket billiards, we created an article of current moves are borderline banned by the authorities. Who the hell is the authority on ball scratching?!
It was a fantastic project, all thanks to the team and mainly, Cyrus. We were balls deep in work through it, but hey, two balls in hand are better than one... never mind.
