Sreeram

Back at Eternal: Anubhav Soni

Anubhav Soni helped build Zomato’s online ordering, left to grow somewhere else, and came back. Episode 6 of a LinkedIn series telling everyone who has left Zomato that they’re welcome back.

Campaign
Back at Eternal · Episode 6 of 6
Format
Camera film · a conversation, 2:06
Made for
LinkedIn
Shot on
2 × Sony FX3 · Sony A7S III
Role
Series format · direction & DOP · edit · design
With
Anubhav Soni · Maahira Jain

The idea

Leave. Grow.
Come back.

Back at Eternal has one message for everyone who has ever left Zomato: you’re still welcome here. Go out, gather experience, and bring it home. The people who come back bring more to the company than they did when they left.

Who it speaks to

Anyone who has left Zomato and wondered whether they could come back. And anyone thinking of joining, who wants to see what kind of place this is from the people who know it best.

Why LinkedIn

It’s where former colleagues and future hires follow the company. Each episode is a LinkedIn post, and the series gave Eternal its own look on the platform, which it didn’t have yet.

The returnee

Anubhav SoniAnubhav SoniGrowth Head · back at Eternal

Out into the world, and back.

He helped build Zomato’s online ordering, left to learn somewhere else, and came back with it. He remembers doing 10 orders a day. He came back to 3–4 million.

  1. Jul 2015Joins Zomato

    AVP, Global Growth. Part of the core team that launched and scaled online ordering, and led Zomato Treats.

  2. Oct 2018JUUL Labs

    Head of Strategy & Planning, India.

  3. 2020 – 2024WhatsApp

    Strategic Partnerships, then Head of Client Success, Business Messaging.

  4. Feb 2024Comes back

    Back at Eternal, with more than five years of experience from outside.

  5. TodayGrowth Head

    Eternal.

From the film

He isn’t the only one.

Asked about his first work best friend, Anubhav says eight of his ten closest friends are Zomans. Then he says the line the whole series is about. They left, built things somewhere else, came back, and lead teams here today.

“A lot of my close friends have come back as well.”
Prerna ParijaPrerna ParijaLead, People & Culture
  1. 2015Joins Zomato: part of the core team that built online ordering from scratch
  2. 2021Leaves as Head, Enterprise Business, after nearly seven years
  3. 2022Co-founds Bluetick.AI
  4. 2024Comes back. Today she leads People & Culture

“Prerna, who now heads the people team. She’s back.”

Naresh MehtaNaresh MehtaLeads analytics & data science
  1. 2017Joins Zomato: AVP, Data Science & Analytics, leading data science and ML
  2. 2018CARS24, for more than five years: rises to VP and Global Head, Data Science & Analytics
  3. 2024Comes back as Business Head, setting up Flywheel, Eternal’s off-platform ad-tech
  4. 2025Today he leads analytics and data science across Zomato

“Naresh now heads data science for us. He’s back.”

Anand SinhaAnand SinhaDistrict by Zomato · back for the third time
  1. 2011Joins Zomato as roughly its 30th employee; becomes National Sales Head
  2. 2013Co-founds PressPlay TV, one of India’s first OTT platforms
  3. 2018Comes back: launches and scales Zomato Gold across 10 countries
  4. 2020Co-founds leap.club, a professional community for women
  5. 2026Comes back again, to District by Zomato

Left twice. Came back twice.

The series

A returnee and a fresher, in conversation.

Every episode pairs someone who left and came back with someone who has just joined. Freshers grew up on camera, so they bring the energy and open the senior up. Between them, both audiences are in the room: the people who might return, and the people about to start.

Back at EternalThe returnee

Anubhav Soni, Growth Head. The expert who has been out and come home.

Fresh at EternalThe fresher

Maahira Jain, People Operations. Joined in 2026, after Psychology at King’s College London.

The twistA game

From episode 2, every episode has one. Jenga came before; this one is a chit draw.

Episode 6 is the last of six. By now the series had its language: an entry hook, name slates, questions on screen and an end slate.

Stills

Split screen: Anubhav and Maahira in conversation
Anubhav reads a chit
An extreme wide of the cafeteria
Anubhav and Maahira at the cafeteria table
Anubhav in profile at the edge of the frame

How it was made

From the series’ look and feel to the last cut: pre-production, a game to put him at ease, a shoot in a glass room, and a non-linear edit. If you’d rather keep browsing, skip to the next project →

  1. The look & feel
  2. Pre-production
  3. The chit draw
  4. The shoot
  5. The edit

The look and feel

It started with a look for Eternal on LinkedIn

Before the first episode, the look and feel. The company didn’t have a brand look on LinkedIn yet, so the series built one, inspired by global brands: simple, clean, and easy to repeat across six episodes. Restraint is the design.

Tools used
DaVinci Resolve
Adobe After Effects
Artlist, for the music
Name slate: back at Eternal, Anubhav Soni, Growth Head
Name slate · back at EternalA script word, a bold word, a hand-drawn line to the name
Name slate: fresh at Eternal, Maahira Jain, People Operations
Name slate · fresh at EternalThe same system, mirrored
The question set in the cafeteria wide
The questionSet in the space left for it
Every day, literally every day, in large type
The one answer in typeOnly the hook’s answer was set in type. Everything else on screen is a question
Black-and-white insert of a hand ringing the bell
The past, in B&WMemories step out of colour
Collage of black-and-white photos on black
The photo wallHis friends, then
End slate: the zomato logo on black
End slateThe logo, nothing else

Pre-production

The film was made before the cameras came out.

Getting to yes

Anubhav is someone who would rather let his work do the talking, so the first job was making the camera feel safe. Many people are wary of one because they don’t know a film can be shaped. The promise: the narrative is in our hands, and anything can be shaped in the edit.

The pre-interview

With Pritika Agarwal, the lead copywriter, a 30-minute conversation in a packed schedule: his whole past, and what being a business head feels like now. That’s where the insight came from. He feels he could get fired every single day.

Casting the fresher

A loud, bubbly fresher wasn’t the match for a thoughtful, measured guest. The team needed someone who could match his intellectual calibre and share experiences. He studied abroad; so did Maahira Jain, who read Psychology at King’s College London. People Operations beside business: a good mix.

Her brief

Make him comfortable. Open him up. Keep it on level ground, ask open questions, and let him take centre stage. She understood it without being told: she stayed in the background and let him talk.

Pre-production

The chit draw

What made him forget the cameras was a little game. Every question was folded into a chit and drawn from a bowl. Random for him, designed by us: each chit came out of the pre-production conversation, so we knew he’d be comfortable answering it. And each was left open, so he’d go back to his past and remember the things he used to do. He talked, a lot.

First chitteam zomato tradition you love?

Anubhav reads the first chit
“…the entire team, at about 10 in the night, was just ringing the bell.”

Second chitwas there a moment you thought you would get fired?

Every day, literally every day
“Every day… literally, every day.” The pre-interview’s insight, back on camera.

Third chitwho was your first work best friend here, and are you still in touch?

The third question, set beside him
“A lot of my close friends have come back as well.”

Asked out loudone last question, I promise: what’s your advice for me?

The walk to the cafeteria
“Learn from people younger than you. Learn from people older than you.”

The look and feel

The reference: Mr. Robot

One show to look up to: Mr. Robot, for its flat grade, its wide compositions and its striking, off-centre framing. A reference, not a copy: we took what it does and adapted it to an office in Gurugram, two people and a bowl of chits.

The reference · Mr. Robot

Mr. Robot: a figure in profile, small at the left of a wide frame of windows
Mr. Robot: two characters in an office, cool and flat
Mr. Robot: a face pushed to the edge of the frame
Mr. Robot: a soft, cool, almost log close-up

Adapted · Back at Eternal

Anubhav low and off-centre, the question set in the open glass
Off-centrePushed low and to one side, with the open glass left for the question
An extreme wide of the cafeteria
The wideThe whole cafeteria in one frame, with room left for the type
Anubhav in profile at the edge of the frame
To the edgeA profile at the edge of the frame, on the long lens
Anubhav and Maahira at the cafeteria table
The gradeFlat, almost log, with a little colour dialled in on top

The shoot

The challenges

The glass meeting room looks beautiful on camera. It’s also the hardest kind of room to shoot in.

The glass meeting room from the corridor: glass on every side, reflecting the office

Glass walls

Every wall is a mirror.

Glass on both sides, so every surface could show a camera, a light or a crew member. Each angle was found so the glass reflected the office, not the shoot.

Blocking

Three cameras, nowhere to hide.

The two of them, three cameras, the crew and the lights all had to be blocked around the table so no camera caught another, directly or in a reflection, and every angle still had a clean background.

The cafeteria

An open room that didn’t stop.

Not everyone knew a shoot was on: people walked through, and the dishwashing kept breaking the momentum. The team took a breather, reset and shot it. Every noisy minute became insert time: one of them chatted with the two of them up close, while the other filmed hands, eyes and faces.

The edit

The edit: story first, then non-linear

Three locations for three parts of the story: the journey, the current stint, and the final advice. The conversation was laid out in the order it was spoken and weighed answer by answer: what creates intrigue, what doesn’t. Then the edit went non-linear, breaking the spaces into sections and intertwining them, because a long conversation in one space goes stale. Three answers could have opened the film. The Diwali 2015 story won: he starts telling it at 1:26, and its peak moves to the very first second.

Glass roomCafeteriaThe walk: the adviceInsertsHis past, in B&WSlates

45 shots · 2:06The arc is the hook: the peak of the Diwali story, from 1:33, opens the film. Each shot is drawn at its true length and coloured by where it was shot; select one to watch from that moment.

On screenOnly the questions

Each question pops up in clean type, the way OpenAI and Anthropic set text in their films. The one answer in type is the hook’s. Neat, quiet, professional.

New this episodeHis past

Black-and-white photos of his friends and his first stint, so the story has a then as well as a now.

SoundNot corporate music

Subtle, subdued, almost in the background. Deliberately not the bland IT-company bed: it had to feel premium, and different.

PaceReactions

Maahira’s reactions are woven through, so it plays as a conversation, not a monologue.

CoverageStolen inserts

Hands, chits, eyes and the bell: gathered in every spare second on set, and used to cut in and out of answers cleanly.

RhythmSpaces intertwined

The three spaces are cut into each other, so it never settles into a podcast, and shows more of the company.

The grade and the look

Minimal, so it looks clean.

A flat grade

Like Mr. Robot: it almost feels like log, with a little colour dialled in on top. Simple, never heavily graded.

Shot in log

Every camera in log, so the grade starts from a soft, open image.

Three cameras, one colour

White balance and ISO matched across all three, so the cut never jumps in colour.

Minimal light

Only the essentials, to keep the look clean and true to the office.

The long lens

A 70–300 from across the room for faces, hands and expressions.

Zooms with a pulse

Natural push-ins and pull-outs, done live, to keep a sit-down conversation moving.

The kit

Cameras

  • 2 × Sony FX3
  • 1 × Sony A7S III
  • Extra batteries
  • On-camera monitors
  • SD cards for every camera
  • Shoulder rigs, with sandbags

Lenses

  • 2 × Sony 24–70
  • 1 × 16–24
  • 1 × 70–300, for the tight shots

Support & sound

  • 2 tripods
  • 2 lapel mics
  • Zoom recorder
  • Audio mixer and sound card

Crew

  • Direction & DOP: Sreeram
  • Camera: Srishti Sharma
  • Copywriter: Pritika Agarwal
  • Camera assistant
  • Sound recordist

To everyone who has left

The door is still open.

Anubhav and Maahira walking down the corridor towards the cafeteria

Credits

Direction & DOP
Sreeram
Camera
Srishti Sharma
Lead copywriter · pre-interview & questions
Pritika Agarwal
Series format, edit & design
Sreeram
Back at Eternal
Anubhav Soni, Growth Head
Fresh at Eternal
Maahira Jain, People Operations
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