Vidya Nagaraj

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