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[HDS @Sharon_HDS]

@swapnakpanda Lol

[HDS @Sharon_HDS]

A beautiful video directed and choreographed by Indians, by Apple on the occasion of Diwali, a festival of lights. Happy Diwali 🪔

[Karthik 🇮🇳 @beastoftraal]

Apple’s new Diwali film (Step Into the Light) is visually stunning. But there’s something oddly outside-in about it, despite Juhi Chawla.

The ingredients are beautifully Indian... Raw Mango textiles, Tijara Fort, a 90s Bollywood song. The gaze *feels* international. It celebrates the appearance of India without quite capturing the experience of being Indian. It plays more like a luxury fashion film than a Diwali ad rooted in how the festival is actually lived.

Diwali isn’t just an aesthetically pleasing celebration of light. It’s family, rituals, food, noise, neighborhoods, memories, and many small human moments. The film captures India’s visual vocabulary beautifully (which makes sense for a camera demo), but it’s far less interested in its emotional texture.

The contrast with Apple’s Chinese New Year films is striking. 'Three Minutes' (2018), 'Daughter' (2020), 'The Comeback' (2022), 'Little Garlic' (2024) and 'I Made a Mixtape for You' (2025) are built around recognizably Chinese people... relationships, family dynamics, inter-generational tension, etc. The festival isn’t a backdrop, but woven into the story. The iPhone is shown off through the storytelling, not the other way around.

'Mixtape' is the telling illustration. It has the same ingredients as this Diwali film - 90s songs, dance, nostalgia. But they’re built around a young man dodging his family’s marriage questions on his way home for the New Year. Same toolkit, totally opposite result!!

And it isn’t about who’s behind the camera. Several of the China films were directed by Westerners; the Diwali film was directed by an Indian. The gaze probably comes from the brief.

So, China gets 15–20-minute short films. India gets an Instagram reel. YOu could argue that market size explains part of that. But still doesn't explain the difference in curiosity (or the lack of it).

Apple’s Chinese films are interested in what it feels like to be Chinese.
Apple's Indian films are interested in what India looks like, as seen from the outside.

P.S. The song, 'Roop Suhana Lagta Hai', is credited to Anu Malik, but it’s A R Rahman’s uncredited 'Ottagathai Kattiko' from the Tamil original.

#advertising #marketing #deepavali #diwali

[HDS @Sharon_HDS]

@ExSecular This picture depicts how our parents and grandparents were always without smiles in photos back in the day.

[HDS @Sharon_HDS]

@IndianAesthetik So you are upset with Apple and not the director of this film Sanjay Garg 🤔

[HDS @Sharon_HDS]

@0xDeliriumm There should be a trigger warning and child abuse warning on this post. Took me back to a place in my head and if I didn’t put in the work, this would have caused a spiral. Please be compassionate for those who have suffered the same. Trigger warning @DeliriousloI

[HDS @Sharon_HDS]

@DrcharlieWardQ He talks about EU NATO members not wanting to join his Iran operations while forgetting we are already fighting his best friend Putin which he funded by his recent purchase. We may not have bombs being dropped but our infrastructure is being hacked daily and multiple times.

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@2nd_zoeyy Me, I’m that person. Have minimal contact with only clients a few days a week, rest I’m home, with my pets, garden, kitchen, studies and art.

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@AnatoliUkraine So by this same logic, Israel’s land grab is also permissible right? Why stop there, every disputed territory which has been invaded by an aggressor shouldn’t be frowned upon. Rutte is such a clown.

[HDS @Sharon_HDS]

@beastoftraal Beautiful and very aesthetically appealing.

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@delonperc No, you can’t change them or get them to even accept that they damaged you. Therapy is for the future you to heal, stay present and feel. This works when you cut contact with them tbh.

[HDS @Sharon_HDS]

@Polymarket Unfortunately that’s the only way one integrates and not continues living in their cultural bubble.

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@alMansourQasimi They attack any of the NATO nations that have US bases triggers article 5 and that won’t be fighting with the US and Israel but will face NATO as the US bases are within NATO member countries. This is what happens when cardboard leaders make threats 🤣

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@kajakallas No one gets to decide on European security except Europeans. The US and Russia are not EU and have no jurisdiction within our borders.

[HDS @Sharon_HDS]

@innocentguyxr Winters are magical! Cozying up infront of the fire, sipping on a hot cuppa while it snows outside. There’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing. Dark nights, aurora Borealis and Milky Way sightings, skiing & ice skating. Xmas markets and cheer. It’s endless for me.

[HDS @Sharon_HDS]

@ashishisdumb Then they wonder, what the hate. Also we know which state they all are from.

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@lady_valor_07 Add more greenery, remove the dark wall accents to a lighter shade. Plants elevate the room and against a lighter background they open up and make that dining set stand out beautifully.

[HDS @Sharon_HDS]

@delonperc Very very true. Also, we are recreating our new lives and documenting helps our brain process safety.

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@WordsnWisdom26 RHCP’s lyrics “The more I see, the less I know, the more I want to let it go” from their song Snow.

[HDS @Sharon_HDS]

While the world has gone mad, I made me some cannoli for my weekend dessert.

[HDS @Sharon_HDS]

@turiyatman At first I thought this was Sweden. Autumn and winter sun and darkness are magical for me. Summer is also lovely when the sun never seems to sleep most of the while.