An inspiring International Women’s Day story within Patriarchal India.
As a Bi-Lingual (Hindi/English) Production Assistant, I joined an all female crew to shoot the Vapi Local Guide Putting Women-Owned Businesses on the Map.
Meet the Local Guide Putting Women-Owned Businesses on the Map
Shot the last weekend in January 2020; Published on YouTube March 8, 2020
This International Women’s Day we’re spotlighting Priyanka Upadhyay, a Local Guide on Google Maps who’s passionate about helping women in India add their businesses to Google Maps. Watch to see how she uses Google Maps on her Google Pixel phone, as a platform to empower and inspire other women, one contribution at a time.
* A three day $1500 budget shoot with an all women crew + one male fixer:
• Director: Neeti Upadhye
• DP / Camera Operator: Anuradha Pathak
• Sound Recordist: Vishakha Bokil
• Fixer: Jeet Mashu
• Production Assistant: Nicole Jaquis
How I was involved:
As a Bi-Lingual (Hindi/English) Production Assistant, I contributed to this production by:
• Accompanying Fixer in scouting out locations and local women business owners willing to be on camera and excited to gain exposure for their stores.
• Assuring Location and Talent Release Forms were filled out.
• Translating English interview questions into Hindi.
• Shooting behind the scenes photos.
• Filling in as Boom Operator when necessary.
• Conducting daily backups of footage from cards to hard drives.
• Creating final log sheet for the editor including: location map links, best takes, transcriptions and translations (Hindi > English).
My Take-aways
Completely inspired after meeting Priyanka and hearing about how she got involved with this, when I got back to Mumbai I looked into my own google account and discovered I was already a level 2 Local Guide. Still a newbie having previously put a few places on the map myself (including Taptkund Mahadev Mandir where I live part of the year in the Himalayas), I began to add some reviews and photos to other places (that Google has tracked where I’ve been) and quickly bumped up to level 3.
Priyanka’s back story…
Three years ago, my world changed completely. Three different surgeries after a road accident left me bedridden and confined to one room for a year and a half. I wondered if I would ever fully recover. I wondered if my career would suffer. I wondered if I would be able to do what I loved—traveling, eating out, and meeting new people. I wondered if I would be happy again.
Thankfully, an optimistic friend planted an idea in my head: “Why don’t you leave Google Maps reviews for places you have already visited?” I had no idea this was a possibility. I began to write Google Maps reviews without ever leaving my room in my hometown of Vapi, India—starting with a local restaurant I adore called Sam’s Alive Again. I sensed my mood changing daily; I was helping people make better decisions about places to go and things to do.
Quickly, my numbers added up; I contributed more than 700 reviews and 2,000 photos that have been seen more than 3 million times. In 2018, I was selected to attend Google’s annual meet-up of Local Guides, where top Google Maps contributors from around the world come together in San Francisco. I made new friends and learned about the amazing things they do for their communities, like adding accessibility information on Google Maps to help people with disabilities and arranging volunteer events. I felt helpful and inspired for the first time in a long time.
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