Sincro Studios has one advertisement on YouTube, titled Mr Busquo - The Goan Baab Cafreal Burger commercial. And, it has garnered them a lot of attention and won over many hearts. We had the opportunity to have a tête-à-tête with Mukund Sincrò, the mastermind behind it.
Independent filmmaker and animator Mukund Shinkre (Sincrò) is from Margao, Goa. After graduating from Parvatibai Chowgule College, Margao, he went on to study fine arts at Goa College of Art, Altinho-Panjim.
He then pursued a year-long diploma in visual effects and animation at the Canadian Vancouver Film School.
In 2020, he and his older brother Dhruv Sincrò co-founded Sincro Studios, and since then, they have been engaged in a variety of entertainment-related endeavours. The business side of the organisation is primarily handled by Dhruv, while Mukund makes the creative decisions.
Mukund spoke of the lucky chances he got in the industry. He said, “As a visual effects artist, I had the opportunity to design the entire VFX for a mini-series called Hawa Badle Hassu, which was featured on Sony LIV in 2020, then I went on to direct an animated music video for Anand Bhaskar Collective called Jaadoogari.”
“Recently, I had the opportunity to make entire storyboards for a Netflix documentary that hasn't been released yet, and currently, I'm working on a few projects involving title sequences of a Hotstar web series and a documentary for which the OTT platform hasn’t been decided,” he went on to say.
He has a lot to offer us undoubtedly, but speaking of the Mr Busquo commercial, he said, “When we started Mr Busquo (A delightful destination for fast food, desserts and refreshing beverages) last year in August, it wasn't very well-known even by the people of Margao and the reason was that we were not marketing our brand well, apart from some few done and dusted reels and food photos on Instagram."
He continued, saying, "I knew the reason but was just not finding time. Although an idea for an ad film used to always hover at the back of my mind.”
He further added, “Since the cafe was performing poorly, we had to do something about it. My brother had been pestering me every day to come up with ideas, and we would discuss them with our dear friend and also the cinematographer of this advertisement – Ashwin Raiturkar.”
He said, “Dhruv had to mainly look after the café, so I used to call up Ashwin and we used to take long rounds, sometimes the beachside, sometimes the village side in Rachol and Curtorim, make pit stops for cutlet pao and discuss on the go. Some of the ideas were good and some bad, but nothing was great.”
Mukund is someone who observes his surroundings carefully, and thus he stated, “One day I saw a customer at Busquo eating the burger like he was figuring out the ingredients of it. Observing the burger after each bite. That intrigued me, and it just hit me and I thought how about we have a character whose only weakness is this burger? Then slowly the remaining dots started connecting, and the rest is history.”
In the Mr Busquo commercial, the sound, screenplay, cast and colouring blend together flawlessly.
Mukund let us know how by saying, “I'm heavily inspired by one of my favourite directors Jean-Pierre Jeunet, who made the classic French film Amelie. The music for our commercial was influenced by this movie and so was the colour palette of the film."
"I personally just love the sound of violins. When I was editing the film, I inserted Disney’s ‘So This Is Love’ (Cinderella) instrumental version. And for the climax, it was Elvis Presley's ‘It's Now or Never’, the instrumental version,” he went on to say.
“Sanskar Vaidya, an aspiring young artist was approached, and he too wanted to work on something fun and exciting, so he was on board immediately. I sent him the reference edit, and he quickly came up with what I had in mind, and boom! The music was perfect,” he added.
Mukunnd also said that as a writer or director, he likes to think that he is in control of the viewer’s emotions. Most people have the attention span of a pup in a room full of butterflies. The audience will skip your ad if it’s not intriguing enough in the starting 5 - 10 seconds.
“There were many different approaches to make this burger ad, and I opted for a funny one so that it would stay with the audience,” he declared.
The end of the advertisement has a perfectly rhyming tagline “Rooch in every bite. Truth in every bite”. Mukund commented on it, “I was fortunate enough to come up with the tagline, which is a crucial part. They have to be malleable, in the sense that they should be able to take the shape of any ad you put them into, preferably.”
He mostly uses the Konkani language in the ad.
Speaking of this deliberate decision, he said, “Well, since the cafe is local, the language also had to be local. One thing every ad must have is the power to make sales for the brand. Without it the ad is worthless, and so for my brand, it had to appeal to our Goan people."
"Also, I believe that Konkani as a language has a lot of potential in filmmaking, which is yet to be explored and experimented with,” he mused.
Sincro Studios is known for its interesting short films, animations and commercials. Mukund is currently writing a dark comedy Konkani feature film which he hopes to get done by this year end.
He said, “Sincro Studio’s vision as a filmmaking company is to get Goan films, Goan actors, the Konkani language and Goa itself on the map.”
The Mr Busquo commercial fulfils the AIDAS (attention, interest, desire and attraction, Satisfaction) principle, which makes it a perfect advertisement.
John D’Silva, Rajiv Hede and Sushant Kamat with their impeccable acting make the advertisement memorable.
Mukund said, “With all modesty, I'd say, we as Goans have to strive towards improving ourselves constantly to achieve something worthwhile. I believe that a little sensitivity to creativity will help in making good content. Constantly critiquing your work, receiving negative feedback gracefully, and never ever settling for a compromise are some of the things I practice and preach.”
John D’Silva, Rajiv Hede and Sushant Kamat with their impeccable acting make the advertisement memorable.
Mukund shared his experience of working with these illustrious, established actors, he stated, “It goes without saying that John D’Silva is one of the best actors in the state.
Timing is the most important thing to crack humour, and he naturally brings it out. Actually, I wrote the screenplay with him in mind, and after I had narrated it to him, he just got it without even having to try.”
“Rajiv Hede is a shapeshifter. You ask him to play a rock, and he can pull it off. I briefed him on the concept, and he was immediately in. Sushant Kamat perfectly fit the look of a constable because of his thick white moustache and was very easy to work with,” said Mukund.
Mukund feels that Goan Konkani video advertisements are very rare because the people of Goa still haven't realised the power of the Konkani language. They subconsciously believe it to be inferior and are reluctant to use it in advertisements.
Piyush Pandey, the brain behind some of the most iconic TV commercials of big brands like Fevicol, Asian paints, Fevi Kwik, etc, whose ads have stayed with us all these years, is Mukund’s inspiration.
Piyush Pandey, the brain behind some of the most iconic TV commercials of big brands like Fevicol, Asian paints, Fevi Kwik, etc, whose ads have stayed with us all these years, is Mukund’s inspiration.
Mukund stated, “The best way to make a good ad is by asking yourself “Are you going to be making sales with this ad?” “Is your ad going to reach your target audience?” “Is it getting the message across?” and “How relevant is it to your product/brand?”.
Mukund Sincrò’s Mr Busquo – The Goan Baab Cafreal Burger commercial has set a benchmark with its excellent production, and we hope that others will follow in his footsteps and create more Konkani advertisements.