KOCHI: The Instagram app always had a trick or two up its sleeves when it comes to the filters/ effect section. With people cooped up in homes during the lockdown, the augmented reality filters of the application have acquired a Malayali spin, with many content creators coming up with their own effects. From Malayalam tongue twisters, to ‘guess the movie challenge’ and games with mallu movie references, these filters are indeed addictive.
Dimple Meera Jom, whose page ‘di_writers’ puts out content for the young Malayalee audience, has come out with her own fun ‘marriage prediction’ filter, reminiscent of the FLAMES challenge most of us played during school days. While the filter might be just a few days old, it already has around two lakh interactions.
“The filter was made using Spark AR application. Once I learned the ropes of the software, the challenge was to make something Malayali youths want. My husband then told me about a game called SOLAR (Sanyasam, Olichottam, Love Marriage, Arranged Marriage, Register Marriage) that played during school days. Inspired by that, we created the ‘Marriage Prediction’ filter. I was pretty sure that users would love it,” says Dimple.
Shyjal Raazi, a product designer, came up with the ‘Guess the Malayalam Movie’ filter, which is similar to the heads up challenge, but with movie names. “It took a few hours to create it and can be done by anyone with some programming knowledge and creativity,” Shyjal said. The challenge has over 10.5 million user impressions.
The Malayali/Kerala connect is what hooks the users. “Instagram challenges became more fun with Malayalam pop-culture references. The interactive videos, which can be recorded and shared, are a fun way of connecting with friends,” says Swathi E, a content creator. For Navaneeth K Muraleedharan (@navaneethk_), a graphic designer, the lockdown boredom had him thinking of ways to do something creative, which is when he came upon a tutorial of interactive AR filter game.
“ I thought it would be cool to make it with a movie character and thought of Kuthiravattom Pappu’s character from Manichithrathazhu.”Like Pappu, who jumps over the imaginary puddles of water, the game too has a character that jumps over water when the player raises his/her eyebrows.
“It has reached over three lakh people with more than 75,000 user interactions, in just a week. A lot of people loved the effect, including Kuthiravattom Pappu’s son Binu Pappu,” he adds. Elizabeth Keyton, aka, Eli Kutty (@eli.kutty) who runs an account dedicated to teaching Malayalam, came up with the ‘Malayalam tongue twisters’ challenge. “So I follow many language accounts, and one had shared a German Tongue Twister filter. I was reminded of how many followers have asked me to do Malayalam ones. I created one and it has been used over 12,000 times,” says Elizabeth.