The lockdown short Grub Ne Bana Di Jodi, directed by Satrajit Sen (inset), has already notched up one lakh views. The story of the fantasy short, starring Mir, spans across India (Calcutta), USA, London, Paris and Canada and is about how “food is helping bring couples together across the globe”.

The Telegraph chats with Satrajit...

How’s the feedback so far?!

It’s quite encouraging. We have got a lot of comments coming in about the positive message spread through the film from absolute strangers on YouTube, which was very heartening.

How did you come up with the idea for the short?

As the lockdown progressed I found enormous controversies around the posting of food pictures by people as a whole section of the society was going hungry. While I personally do not agree with this diktat passed on social media, I thought of doing something with food as the central theme during the lockdown, which was uniquely a common phenomenon across the world.

Why did you involve couples from different parts of the world?

Since the lockdown was prevalent across the world and food brings the world together genuinely, I thought of not limiting the film to Calcutta, Bengal, India but try to showcase how food is playing its part in the lives of couples globally.

Lagnajita Chakraborty has sung the title song. How did she record it?

Fortunately, she has been staying at her dad’s place ever since the lockdown was announced and they have a professional studio at home. Samrat Mukherjee wrote the lyrics for this and the song has gone on to be very popular, going by the comments received so far.

How tough was it to figure out the locations and camera movements?

Given the fact that the couples were neither actors nor professional DoPs, it was mighty tough to say the least! I had to chalk out the shots frame by frame and explain it to them. So they were shooting bits, sending them to me on WhatsApp and I was on a video call to check the frames continuously. For the introduction shots a recce was done through video calls quite a number of days before the shoot. I wanted to show the surroundings in which the couples live.

You had to reshoot some portions. Why?

Footages from two couples were completely gone due to Amphan and its disastrous effects on West Bengal. My editor’s computer was damaged due to the rain and he couldn’t retrieve some of the files stored on them. Now imagine my embarrassment when I had to ask these people to shoot again. It was sheer trauma for them I am sure what with continuity to be maintained, some clothes accessories and all!

Did you get to discover anything new about the cast?

Their patience, enthusiasm and the ability of their children to shoot on an iPhone without having any technical knowledge of films. Also some of them gave me suggestions, which were quite apt as well as surprising!

What is your takeaway from the whole experience?

I was very happy with the overall look of the film finally. While I was not even expecting a very professional level of performance from any of the amateurs, it was surprising to note the acting ability of one couple, Trino and his wife Kamal, which has been widely appreciated as well.