The Dirty Pictures: Delhi’s shocking campaign to battle trash pile-up, Bollywood-style

By Sana Panjwani

The crux of any good campaign, besides its aim, lies in its name.

A catchy campaign name is as essential as the intended end result and almost as effective as the campaigning methods. The initiators behind Delhi’s ‘The Dirty Pictures’ campaign are clearly privy to this piece of information.

In a country where Bollywood is a passion that unites millions and a major driver of India’s consumer DNA, coming across a poster of beloved actors such as Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol in a romantic pose set in trash as opposed to the expected emerald greenery is shocking, to say the least.

‘The Dirty Pictures’ campaign taps into one of India’s biggest obsessions by taking culturally iconic stills from wildly popular Bollywood movies and replacing their romantic settings with trash to spread and promote the importance of recycling in the country. Launched in September, the creative initiative comes as a result of the 8,500 tons of solid waste, 500-600 gallons of sewage, 5,000 tons of electronic waste and 10 metric tons of biomedical waste piling up in Delhi alone every day, according to the Economic Survey of Delhi 2012-13.

Only 5% of this is recycled.

Initiated by Karma Recycling in collaboration with cultural group Delhi, I Love You (DILY) and architect-cum-artist Shaily Gupta, the colorful, eye-catching posters have been plastered across more than 55 rubbish disposals in South Delhi.

“With these posters we are suggesting a reality where, if we don’t start to recycle and reuse our waste through proper channels, the beautiful Bollywood settings so close to our heart will soon be filled with garbage,” said Akshat Ghiya, the co-founder of Karma Recycling.

The Bollywood-and-trash superimposition idea is Gupta’s brainchild and was inspired after a morning walk through her favorite park, which unfortunately sports an absurd amount of trash. Gupta snapped a few pictures, photoshopped a few iconic Bollywood scenes and shared them on social media which Ghiya stumbled upon later and decided that this was the best method to effect change.

The campaign makes use of three cult films – Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jaayenge (The Brave-Hearted will Take the Bride), Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (Something Happens) and Shree 420 (Mr. 420), all of which are iconic romance films starring Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol in the first two and the celebrated Nargis Dutt and Raj Kapoor in Shree 420.

Along with superimposing trash, the posters also feature the more memorable and famous lines from the movies but with a humorous tweak.

The DDLJ movie’s famed line “bade bade deshon mai aisi choti choti batay hoti rehti hai (in big places, such small things keep happening)” has been tweaked to say “bade bade deshon mai jagah jagah kooda pada rehta hai (in big places, trash is lying everywhere).”

Shree 420’s heartfelt dialogue, “pyaar sai kyun darta hai dill? (why is the heart afraid to love?)” now reads as “kachray sai phir kyun darta hai dill?” (why is the heart then afraid of trash?).

“Garbage is everywhere. We have to stop before ‘everywhere becomes garbage.’ If we don’t stop it now, it will swallow our lives, our spaces, our moments and our dreams. I thought what is that one thing which we always want to keep clean, sacred and pristine? The answer was Bollywood, our movies and our stars. So that’s when I created these images,” said Gupta, explaining her decision to use Bollywood as the driving force behind the recycling waste management campaign.

Besides raising awareness using its ‘shock’ factor, the posters also promote the launch of online recycling portal recycleyourwaste.in, listing the contact details of Delhi-based recycling services which pick up reusable or recyclable waste from homes.

Plastered in locations throughout Delhi including Defence Colony, R.K.Puram and Greater Kailash-2, Ghiya says the sites range from hidden locations to LIG colonies and “were suggested by Delhi waste management which holds contract for waste collection in South Delhi.”

“We dispose mountains of solid and electronic waste daily as a nation with little thought of what it’s doing to our precious natural resources or to the environment. We wanted people to think about waste, and what our cities may look like if we’re not responsible with its collection and treatment. What better way to do it than through art and Bollywood imagery?” said Ghiya. “If people could love their cities as much as they love their movies, choosing to segregate, reuse, and recycle their paper, plastic, and electronic waste etc., we’ll leave a cleaner world behind for the next generation.”

Looking past the humor and Bollywood-esque stylings of the campaign, its genius approach to raise awareness about Delhi’s growing problem also moves beyond the rote learning in schools about the importance of reusing, recycling and responsible rubbish disposal, which is usually limited to the literate, and translates it into a powerful medium capable of sparking meaningful action and change.

“My message to people is,” Ghiya says, “if you loved your city as much as you love Bollywood, you could live in a much cleaner environment.”