Agreeing that artistes emerge so much the wiser after every project, Gauri Shinde says her latest ad shoot taught her a valuable lesson — to be articulate with instructions. "I couldn't make hand gestures to explain things. Also, I had to remember that my right, on camera, becomes their left," laughs the director who remotely shot a series of commercials for messaging service WhatsApp during the lockdown.

To be able to pull off the shoot, Shinde realised it was imperative to have a competent director of photography (DoP) and the right actors. She struck gold with her casting — in her 60-second film, Sulabha Arya wonderfully depicts how the lockdown has left senior citizens lonelier than ever while Amruta Subhash shows how we are only a video call away from our loved ones.