Valentine’s Day: Yes, I Am a Cheater

Three office workers explain, straight to camera, how to two-time at work. Then the reveal: the affair is a side hustle, and Zomato is all for it, because a full-time job doesn’t have to be the only thing you love.

Campaign: Valentine’s Day · Fuel Your Hustle
Format: Camera film · 9:16 · 1:07
Role: Assisting director · cinematographer · edit
Timeline: Four days, idea to edit
Cast: MD Anas · Simran Poonia · Kannav Bhardwaj
Written by: Hitesh Makwaney

The idea

Cheating, done right.
It’s called a side hustle.

Part of the culture

Side hustles are already part of life at Zomato. Plenty of Zomans are creators with their own audiences, run their own businesses, even their own cafés, alongside a full-time job. They’re what keeps a lot of people sane. The film says it out loud: we’re open to you pursuing your passions here.

Four days’ notice

This season, Valentine’s Day was going to be a single carousel post. Four days before the day, the senior creative director walked over: we’re making a film. No script, no cast, no plan. In under 72 hours the copy team wrote it, producers found the cast, and the film team found the spaces and blocked the shots.

Fuel Your Hustle, in black and white

At the time, Zomato’s brand platform was Fuel Your Hustle: all black and white, about drive, health and stories of people building something. So the film is black and white too, and the only colour in it is the Zomato red at the very end.

The guide

Five rules for two-timing at the office.

The film is a how-to, told straight to camera. A title card introduces the speakers, and each chapter is one rule, delivered with complete conviction.

Title card: a comprehensive guide to cheating — *The guide***A comprehensive guide to cheating**

Chapter 1: Privacy — *Chapter 1***Privacy**

Chapter 2: Work late — *Chapter 2***Work late**

Chapter 3: Secret phones for secret activities — *Chapter 3***Secret phones for secret activities**

Chapter 4: Never share your screen — *Chapter 4***Never share your screen**

Chapter 5: Shhhhh! — *Chapter 5***Shhhhh!**

The reveal

“Yes, I am a cheater.”

Five chapters of two-timing, played completely straight. Then the turn: the affair is a side hustle, a start-up, a passion for creating. Not cheating on the job. Doing it alongside.

Stills

A speaker smiles in front of the whiteboard

Headphones on and laptop open, hiding out in the washroom

A speaker talks to camera across the open office floor

In a shirt and tie, leaning back at his desk

A speaker shrugs in front of the whiteboard

Four days, start to finish

From “just a carousel post” to a finished film by Valentine’s Day. If you’d rather keep browsing, skip to the next project →

Four days
The team
References
The shoot
The edit

Four days

I watched a well-oiled machine cook.

Everyone pulled up their A game at once. The copy team started writing, producers started reaching out and negotiating, and the film team started scouting spaces and blocking shots. Everyone trusts each other’s expertise, and years in their own departments make it muscle memory. What wasn’t even a concept on day one was planned and ready in under 72 hours.

The script

Written by Hitesh Makwaney and the copy team, as five chapters: privacy, working late, secret phones, never sharing your screen, and keeping it quiet. Each one plays on the language of an affair, while the reveal turns it into a side hustle.

A guide, not a love story

Once the cinematic language was set, the film needed a guide to take the audience through it. The title became “A comprehensive guide to cheating”, with the speakers introduced like a panel of experts.

Pre-production

The team

A film made in four days runs on trust. Everyone here has years in their own department, so each part moved in parallel.

*Senior Creative Director***Udayan Chakravarty**Everything runs through him: the script, the casting, the edit and the final film.

*Director · Executive Producer***Lakshay Dhalla**Associate Creative Director, and my manager. Directed on set, shaped the references and the look, and co-edited the film.

*Assisting Director · Cinematographer***Sreeram**Directed the performances alongside Lakshay, shot with Jayansh, and cut the film with Lakshay.

*DOP***Jayansh Sharma**Led the cinematography references, the rigging and several of the film’s unique shots.

*Copywriter***Hitesh Makwaney**Wrote the script and the characters, and kept every delivery on tone on set.

*Casting · set production design***Vaibhav Pathak**Cast the film with Vishakha Kaushik, and designed and ran the set.

Pre-production

Self-aware, on purpose

The direction drew from The Office and The Big Short. In both, the main characters break the fourth wall and talk straight to camera, in interview settings, and the characters are a little absurd. That self-aware feeling is the whole tone of the film. The references came from Lakshay Dhalla.

The reference · The Office

The Office: Jim at a whiteboard, then a look to camera

The Office: Michael at his desk, looking to camera

The Office: Michael performing in the conference room

The reference · The Big Short

The Big Short: a character turns to camera mid-meeting

The Big Short: talking straight into the lens

Adapted · Valentine’s Day

The whiteboard, like a meeting room presentation — **The whiteboard**Set up like a meeting-room presentation

Talking straight to camera at the whiteboard — **To camera**Every line is a piece to camera

A crash zoom into the eyes — **The crash zoom**Fast punch-ins, as in The Big Short

**The absurd**Four hours in the washroom, with a laptop

And the structure · Nike ACG

“An Impractical Guide to Camping and the Outdoors”: a step-by-step guide on how not to do something. It gave the film its shape: a title card, a panel of experts, and numbered chapters.

The shoot

Three performers, three ways of directing

Every line is a piece to camera: they talk to a lens, not to another person, which is harder to make feel natural. The cast are creators, chosen for their audience as much as their acting, so there’s no long rehearsal. The cast and crew meet an hour before roll, and the rest is shaped live on set.

MD AnasA free pass, then a controlled pass

A natural comic, used to performing for his own audience. First a free-flow pass with every delivery he could think of; then a controlled pass built on the take we liked. Within an hour, every take was on tone, ten to twelve variations at a time.

Kannav BhardwajOne long take, tuned live

The role needed a confident, slightly rebellious energy. Instead of stopping to talk between takes, the camera kept rolling while I guided him line by line, so the momentum never dropped and the tone came together in one continuous pass.

Simran PooniaA smaller room

Her first professional set, after years of filming at home with a phone and a ring light. We moved some of the crew out of her eyeline and kept the notes simple, focused on action and delivery. That’s when she truly began to shine.

The shoot

On the day of the shoot

One day, shot in the office. The shoot-day schedule:

9:00 amCrew and equipment call: unloading, rigging, technical checks
10:30 amActors call: preparation, blocking, performance briefing
12:00 pmRoll camera
2:00–4:00 pmLunch in phases, in small groups, so the set never stops
8:00 pmPack-up
9:00 pmFootage transferred, verified and backed up

The missing headsetTwo hours, solved in thirty minutes

The equipment arrived at 10, without the intercom headset. Getting one would normally take two hours. Vaibhav pulled a few strings and had it on set in thirty minutes.

A big set, a new performerFewer people in her eyeline

Two cameras, a big light, cutters, producers and feedback after every take can overwhelm anyone on their first set. Moving crew out of her eyeline and keeping notes simple let Simran settle in.

Lines that didn’t landRewritten on the spot

When a line on paper didn’t carry the energy out loud, Hitesh changed it right there on set, so the take never had to wait for a new script.

The edit

The edit table

The shoot was the easy part. The edit had about two days, and the last night ran past 11 pm, with the film going live the next morning.

One brain, two tasksHis vision, my execution

Lakshay would talk through the vision out loud while I cut as he spoke. We built our own shorthand on the way: “slip left”, “slip right”, “punch in”, “punch out”. When we both went visually stale, the rest of the team would drop by and pitch ideas.

11 pm, the night beforeFive cuts in one night

We had it at about a minute and a half and felt it was the sweet spot. Udayan asked if it was ready; I said not yet. So he challenged us to make five versions that night: 1:00, 1:17, 1:20 and more. Cutting to a hard limit shows what actually holds attention, and what’s only there because we shot it.

The musicFrom background to full energy

We started with music that sat in the background, since the performers carried so much energy. The film felt flat. So we started again from scratch, playing the cut on loop against track after track, until we found the fast-paced energy it needed.

The hookThe guidePrivacyWork lateSecret phonesNever shareShhhhh!The revealFuel your hustle

37 shots · 1:07The final cut: five chapters in about thirty seconds, then the reveal takes its time. Each shot is drawn at its true length and coloured by its chapter; select one to watch from that moment.

The end card

Because every side hustle
can become the main story.

Credits

Direction: Lakshay Dhalla
Assisting director & cinematographer: Sreeram
DOP: Jayansh Sharma
Edit: Lakshay Dhalla, Sreeram
Written by: Hitesh Makwaney
Executive producers: Lakshay Dhalla, Udayan Chakravarty
Casting & set production design: Vaibhav Pathak, Vishakha Kaushik
Cast: MD Anas, Simran Poonia, Kannav Bhardwaj

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