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Bronze Award
The Great Indian Dunk
NBA India
United Arab Emirates
2026
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Entrant Company
Leo UAE
Entry Type
Product/Service
Launch Country
India
Program
Clio Awards 2026
Medium Type
Professional
Medium
Film Craft
Category
Cinematography
In a country where cricket owns the streets, basketball felt aspirational, foreign, and distant. But what if it wasn’t? What if the NBA’s most iconic dunks weren’t thousands of miles away - but already alive in the instinctive movements of a billion Indians? With no stars, no studios, and a sub-$15,000 budget, we captured moments of everyday flight across India - fishermen leaping into rivers, kids vaulting rooftops, workers in mid-air. Movements that mirrored the NBA’s greatest dunks. We didn’t script anything - we simply observed what had been hiding in plain sight. The campaign reignited grassroots energy, drove conversation, and built relevance for basketball in a cricket-dominated nation. It made the sport feel less like an import and more like an instinct. We didn’t just tell India the game belonged here. We showed them it was already in their blood. Through a beautiful cinematic journey across India, we recreated 4 of the NBA’s most famous player’s dunks, in an authentic Indian way. The famous Jordan dunk was set against the stunning backdrop of the Taj Mahal. Shaq’s slamdunk was captured in the deserts of Rajasthan. Kobe’s superdunk was filmed in the holy city of Benares and Lebron’s iconic dunk was shot in Mumbai’s Gate Way of India. Turning these dunks into a nationwide campaign to find India's next basketball star. The cinematography of this black-and-white film is a striking blend of elegance and intensity. Shot across India’s diverse terrains, it uses contrast, shadow, and texture to elevate each dunk into a visual sculpture. Wide shots capture the grandeur of landscapes, while slow-motion close-ups highlight the athletic grace of each move. Natural light and carefully framed compositions give every scene a timeless, almost mythic quality. The absence of color focuses attention on movement, form, and emotion, turning iconic basketball moments into pure, cinematic poetry.
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