Set Design: Mahindra War Room 2011

Doesn't everyone,

in a war room,

have equal agency?

PRODUCTION | SET DESIGN | STRATEGY | TELECAST | WAR ROOM 2011

2011

Mahindra

War Room

The project is a collaboration between MITID Pune and 'Mahindra War Room' knowledge partners, Broadvison. Mahindra & Mahindra is an Indian multinational conglomerate working in multiple sectors.

Mahindra ‘War Room’ is an annual televised business event hosted by Mahindra and Mahindra every year.

Students from 17 business Schools across India are selected to present their business strategies for the different sectors of Mahindra & Mahindra.

The identity of the competition is inspired by the Mahabharata, thus the set followed the same language.

One of the key factors driving the design was the idea of having like-minded people in the same space. It was not students pitching proposals to

a jury panel, but business minds talking to each other This brought the presenters on the same level as the the 'board'. The design was governed by the idea of a "dialogue" between two equals, strategising for a common goal with the winner being a 'first among equals'

The non-hierarchical set design broke convention from the past years of students walking up to the stage and podium.

The elevated platform was common to the presenters and Mahindra's board, and each participant, even when not presenting, had a "seat at the table", facing the audience and the board.

Knowing this was to be a televised event, certain dramatic camera frames and vantage points were created while still maintaining the same for the audience in the hall.

Borrowing from the name and it being a "strategy" event, the set creates an enclosed space within the hotel ballroom it was hosted in- building on the idea of the secretive spaces, banner heads and clan discussions, but also cutting-off temporarily from the world outside and creating a place of its own which few are privy to.