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Short Film WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY AKANKSHA NEGI
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INDEX 1. Aims & Objectives - Project Scope/Goals - Research 2. Concept Development - Inspiration and ideas to shoot the film - Script for the film - Inspiration, character sketch and illustration of the character - Production Details 3. Deliverable Development - Shooting the film - Mumbai - Shooting the film - Baroda
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4. Final Outcome
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5. Timeline
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6. Budget
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7. Promotional Strategy
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8. Post-Release
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9. References
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Aims & Objectives Project scope/Goals My main goal of the project was to spread awareness about ACID ATTACKS in India and how things and life changes for an acid attack survivor after the acid attack. How the society changes towards them, how things get more complicated for them and how people sideline them in life. The project scope includes a fictional short film about the life of a fictional character named Mira, who is an acid attack survivor.
RESEARCH CULTURAL RESEARCH In India, acid attack is one topic, people usually don’t talk about. People have heard cases but they are not really into the topic. Acid attack wasn’t even recognised as a separate offence, but with the amendment in the Indian Penal Code in February 2013, incidents of acid attacks are now being recorded as a separate offence under section 326A and 326B. [3] Presently an acid attack survivor gets Rs 3 lakhs as compensation from the government. The amount is far too less for a survivor to undergo corrective surgeries. At least 6-8 surgeries are required for a person to restore the face back to a reasonable level of function and aesthetic appeal. But the cost of even a single surgery is too expensive for many families in India. The government compensation is essentially of no real help. Presently, the NGO has come across only 5 people who have received government help. And at least 3 people are attacked with Acid in India every week.[4] NGO’s all over India, basically aim on how to push the survivors to think about their life ahead and not what happened in the past. They don’t sympathise with them, they inspire them. Lot of acid surivors are disowned by their famalies and are treated ill by the society. They are stared at and looked down upon. Through the quantitative research, I got a better perspective and idea on acid attacks and I also got a few ideas from them on how to spread awareness about acid attacks amongst people. MARKET RESEARCH There aren’t many projects on acid attacks in India till date. There are a few projects by NGO’s that are done through the social media and a few documentary films are made on them. • Take a faceless selfie. Donate a face to an acid attack survivor A campaign launched to raise funds for acid attack survivors by Stop Acid Attacks in association with Cheil India. It was launched on various social media platforms. People could simply change their Facebook, Twitter or Instagram profile picture with www.donateaface.org written on a sheet of paper covering the face. People had to use the hastag “#donateaface” so that more and more people get to know about it. [1]
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Laxmi Saa | Face of the Campaign | Photographer Ravi Choudhury
• Buy a calendar. Help an acid attack survivor A calendar launched to raise funds for the acid attack survivors for their treatment by Stop Acid Attacks, a campaign by the Chhanv Foundation in India. The calendar holds pictures of the acid attack survivors all dressed up and happy, staging their dreams through pictures. [2]
Acid Attack Survivors | Calendar for raising funds | Photographer Rahul Saharan
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• Interview with Mr.Rahul Saharan | Photographer | Stop Acid Attacks An in-depth interview was carried out with photographer, Rahul Saharan, who works with an NGO that helps the acid survivors and has been working with them for the past 3-4 years. I tried knowing his point of view on this topic and what does the NGO do, to help the survivors. How things change for them and how does the society react or what do they think about this topic. The first few questions helped me in understanding, what he thinks about acid attacks and how does the NGO help them. He told me stories about the survivors & how the NGO concentrates more on how to push the survivors to think about their life ahead & not what happened in the past. They don’t sympathise with them, they inspire them. He shot a calendar with the acid survivors, to raise money for them, so that they could move ahead in life and achieve their dreams. One thing that struck me the most in the entire phone-interview was, when he told me about how he came up with the whole idea of brining out a calendar and let the people know that the survivors are here to stay. An acid survivor named Laxmi was once questioned by Rahul that what was that one thing that she hoped would change and that was “if people could stop commenting and staring at them and forcing them to cover their faces”. Thats when Rahul decided to do a shoot with the acid survivors as models and spread the word through his work that they (the survivors) are not scared nor ashamed to be seen by anyone. They are who they are and they deserve everything, a normal being deserves. When they have no issues with the world seeing them, why do we have issues? He basically wanted me to understand that, the survivors are fighters and they have been through a lot of pain and now all they deserve is love and care. Rahul Saharan with acid attack survivor Laxmi Saa
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• Survey I conducted a survey to gain a broader perspective on what people think about acid attacks and whats their take on it. A survery for 81 individuals was conducted, ageing from 17-30, through an online website called Survey Monkey. There were 10 questions which asked an individual on how much they know about acid attacks and what do they think about it. The questions and responses for every question were as follows: Q) A)
Have your heard of acid attacks? 100% people (81 people) have heard about acid attacks in India.
Q) A)
Where do you think, acid attacks usually take place? 50.62% (41 people) think that acid attacks take place more in the urban areas comapred to 49.38% (40 people), who think that acid attacks take place more in the rural areas.
Q) A)
How many cases have you heard about? 39.25% (32 people) have heard more than 5 acid attacks in India, 34.57% (28 people) have heard 2-5 acid attacks in India and 25.93% (21 people) have heard 1-2 acid attack in India.
Q) A)
Who are the survivors/victims usually? 100% (81 people) think that women are the main victims of acid attacks comapred to men and kids, which are 4.84% (4 people) and 9.88% (8 people) respectively.
Q) A)
Do you know how and where to get acid from? If yes, please specify where and how much does it cost.If no, just write no. 32 people out of 81 said yes, they know where to get acid from and the acid costs around Rs.30-100/- depending upon the quantity of the acid.
Q) Why do you think, acid attacks take place in India? A) According to people, 70.3% (57 people) think, acid attacks take place in India because of declining of sexual favours, 66.7% (54 people) think, rejecting of marriage proposals, 56.79% (46 people) think its because the bride fails to get enough dowry to satisfy husband’s family and 22.22% (18 people) think, its because of property disputes. Q) A)
Do you personally know any acid attack survivor? If yes, could you share his/her story with me.(All the information will be private and nothing will be published or talked about without your consent).If you don’t know anyone - Just write no. Out of 81 people, only 1 person knew or saw an acid survivor.
Q) A)
Do you think people know how gruesome acid attacks are and the amount of awareness is ample enough in India?If no, how can we change it and spread more awareness on how to stop acid attacks and help the survivors? Out of 81 people, 75.31% (61 people) believe, awareness about acid attacks is not ample enough in India and lot of people said, social media is a ma jor base, to spread awareness on this topic.
Q)
The Indian criminal law did not recognise acid attack as a separate offence. It was included in the Sexual Assault Bill till 2012. With the amendment in the Indian Penal Code in February 2013, incidents of acid attacks are now being recorded as a separate offence under section 326A and 326B.- Section 326A lays down the punishment for acid throwing.The minimum punishment is 10 years imprisonment with fine.- Section 326 B lays down the punishment for attempted acid throwing. The minimum punishment is 5 years imprisonment. It can extend up to 7 years
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imprisonment with fine. Do you feel the laws are in India are strict enough or the government should look into extending the period of incarceration to life imprisonment? A) Out of 81 people, 65.43% (53 people) feel that the Indian laws are not strict enough and 34.57% (28 people) feel that the laws are strict enough. Q) If you come across an acid survivor, will you befriend him/her? A) Out of 81 people, 91.36% (74 people) said, they’ll befriend an acid survivor and 8.64% (7 people) said, they won’t befriend an acid survivor, which clearly states ma jority of the people will be friends with an acid survivor, if they get a chance to interact with them. The survey gave me a better idea and perspective on the topic that I selected for my project. Before the survey, I had done a lot of research on the internet and interviewed people but the survey with 81 people, gave me an insight on what people think about acid attacks and how can we tackle the problem together.
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• More research What happens with the survivors after the attack??
How can we help them??
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DESIGN RESEARCH I was going through a my Facebook feed, when I came across a post about an acid attack survivor, named Sonali Mukherjee, who got married. That post really got my attention and I decided on reading more about her life. Once I learnt about her, I had the urge to know if there were more cases in India and since then began the extensive research by me on acid attacks, I read almost 70-80 stories online, understood about the different reasons, why the acid attacks take place, does the government help the survivors, if yes, how much? The more deeper I went, the more disappointed I got. The acid survivors live a life of hell after the attack. They aren’t accepted by the society nor by their family and friends. That’s when the NGO comes t their rescue. The NGO tries to bring up hope into their life. Make the survivors feel better and help them get back on their feet. Its not easy to built up your confidence once you go through so much, it not only ruins your life but your inner peace as well. The attack not only harms the person physically but emotionally as well and they need people around them , to love them , support them, make them believe that there is still hope. There have been many campaign projects that are about acid attacks. Photographs, calendars, documantaries. There are also projects by NGO’s to raise money for the acid survivours and give them a better life. Since many applications of the topic have been done, I would like to take a new approach with my own interpretation on it. • Concept (Solution) There were many options of applications: posters, a walk dedicated to the acid survivors, a short film/video, from which I then selected film/video, as I thought it would engage the audience more and communicate my message to them about acid survivors. It is equally challenging yet an interesting approach to interact with the audiences while showing them about how an acid attack survivor plans to spend her day in the city and how people treat her and how she ends up being sad but finds hope in the end. What applications I can do? - Movie/video - Selfie trend - Rose water memento - “Splash love not acid” - Calendar - Poster series - A walk for the acid survivors to show support My final application was to write and direct a short film based on acid attacks in India. A film/video that shows how different and sad life gets for an acid survivor after the attack. How they are sidelined and lonely and how a ray of hope can change a lot for them. The genre is fiction/popular. Duration: Maximum 8 minutes.
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Concept Development INSPIRATION AND IDEAS TO SHOOT THE FILM
Anouk - Bold is Beautiful | The Visit | Myntra
A series of videos by Myntra. I got my inspiration from there. The style I wanted to shoot my film in. I wanted to shoot the entire film, without showing the main character’s face, till the end and the Myntra AD’s give me an idea on how to shoo the film and inspire me to take my idea forward. • Links to the videos: Anouk - Bold is Beautiful | The Visit | Myntra https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ef27m5ocK6Q Anouk - Bold is Beautiful | The Wait | Myntra https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aG9_2_3RYxw Anouk - Bold is Beautiful | The Whispers | Myntra https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7Bfi6d5mQk
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SCRIPT FOR THE FILM • Name Of The Film: Hausla (Courage, Encouragement, Hope) • Main Character: Mira • Who is Mira?: Mira is a 21 year old acid attack survivor • Story: Refer to the script
INSPIRATION, CHARACTER SKETCH AND ILLUSTRATION OF THE CHARACTER
Laxmi Saa | Acid Attack Survivor| Character Inspiration For The Film
Who is Laxmi Saa? Laxmi was born in New Delhi in a middle-class family. The acid attack on Laxmi happened in New Delhi’s busy Khan Market back in 2005. She was only 16 then. Though unlike many other survivors of acid attacks, Laxmi got immediate help and treatment, her family ended up losing all their finances and resources on her treatment. An unfortunate incident in 2012 has left the family without the sole bread winner, as Laxmi’s father passed away in 2012. Her younger brother has been diagnosed with dysfunctional
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lungs & is admitted in the hospital. Her mother spends her days looking after her ailing son. The family survives on the little help they get from her father’s former employer, for whom he used to work as a cook. The brave acid attack fighter Laxmi even went on to learn tailoring and beauticians work after recovering from the grave injuries to support her family financially.[5] Mira - Before the shooting began - A rough idea of the character.
Black hair
- Height: 5’8-5’10 - Body type: Thin - Complexion: Wheatish - Not illiterate (knows hindi and a bit of english)
Face is a bit disfigured, because of the acid attack. Wearing Indian attire - Full sleeved kurta and leggings.
- Is Independent but has no friends and is lonely Palm and fingers are not burned.
- Wears Indian wear - No make-up - Has a small leather sling bag
Belly shoes.
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Production Details Mumbai, Maharashtra, India - Plan A Actors • Main lead - Aarushi Saria • Auto-driver - SriRam, Naresh, Vinayak, Mangesh • Waiteress - Jheel Goradia • Group of friends and customer - Shalaka Shah, Vivek Thakker, Samiya Dalwani • Aunty - Vidiya Iyer • Kid - Minhal Writer • Akanksha Negi Director/Screenplay • Akanksha Negi Cinematographer • Satya jit Ha jarnis Editors • Akanksha Negi & Satya jit Ha jarnis Locations - Mumbai • Home scenes - Juhu rose apartment • Kite scene - Outside Juhu rose apartment • Road auto scene - Near Juhu bus depot • Coffee shop scene - Wagh Bakri Chai • Market scene - Juhu Market On Location Helpers • Samiya Dalwani Make-Up Artist • Pooja Lalwani Equipments • Canon DSLR camera (shooting) - 1 • Nikon DSLR camera (clicking) - 1 • Lighting equipments - 2 Kino’s 2x4 & 4x4 (With grid and gateways - frame) • Tripod - 2 • Reflectors - 2 Softwares • Adobe Premier • Adobe Illustrator • Adobe Photoshop • Adobe Audition
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Baroda, Gujarat, India - Plan B Actors • Main lead - Nidhi Joshi • Auto-driver - Samir Ghanchi, Sa jid Ghanchi, Rizwan Ghanchi, Zakir Sayid • Waiteress - Dhwani Shah • Group of friends and customer - Tanu Mathur, Urvashi Gohil, Ra jat Ga jjar, Akanksha Negi • Aunty - Venu Birappa • Kid - Arpan Story • Akanksha Negi Director/Screenplay • Akanksha Negi Cinematographer • Satya jit Ha jarnis Editors • Akanksha Negi & Satya jit Ha jarnis Locations • Home scenes - GEB colony • Kite scene - GEB colony • Road auto scene - Akota road • Coffee shop scene - Lilleria food court • Market scene - Near Avishkar complex On Location Helpers • Tanu Mathur • Urvashi Gohil • Bunty Make-Up Artist • Pooja Lalwani Equipments • Canon DSLR camera (shooting) - 1 • Nikon DSLR camera (clicking) - 1 • Lighting equipments - Kino Flo, Baby, 575 HMI and Multi 20 • Tripod - 2 • Reflectors - 2 Lighting team: • Sanjay B. Thakerda • Sanjay J. Vasava Driver for the cast and crew: • Dhrumil Softwares • Adobe Premier • Adobe Illustrator • Adobe Photoshop • Adobe Audition
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• Locations in Mumbai - Plan A
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• Storyboards •
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• Make-Up trials
Finding a prosthetic make-up artist in Mumbai was one hard task. People usually didn’t know any prosthetic make-up artists and then after searching a lot, I found Pooja Lalwani. We met and discussed what kind of make-up I wanted for the film and for how much time. We did a lot of trials to finalise the look for the film. • Glass cork bottles - Giveaways
I decided to give away these bottles, filled with water and a rose petal in it with tag that says “SPLASH LOVE, NOT ACID”. Its more like a souvenir to reinforce the message that I have tried to send through my film.
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• Costumes for the film (rough ideas)
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
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Deliverable Development Shooting in Mumbai and Baroda Shoot in Mumbai wasn’t how it was planned. I faced a lot of obstacles while shooting the scenes. There were issues with the police because we were shooting at a public place, wasn’t able to find a cafeteria for a shoot because the coffee shop owner backed out last minute, finding a good make-up artist was a bit difficult as well, because prosthetic make-up is not easy and there are a very few make-up artists available in Mumbai. Also, the constant weather change and raining in Mumbai was disturbing my shoot schedule which made things worse. After facing a lot of issues, I decided to go with my Plan B, that is to shoot the entire film in Baroda, incase something happens. I finalized everything, even before leaving for Baroda, becuase I didn’t want to waste time. Time was the only thing I was concerned about the most. The Baroda schedule got over in 2 weeks with all the scenes shot, with a few changes in the script.
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SHOOTING THE FILM - MUMBAI
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SHOOTING THE FILM - BARODA • Costumes for the film
• The lighting team and the autowallas of the film
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Final Outcome • Identity of the film While working on the film, I wasn’t sure what to name the film, but while shooting the film, I felt the name HAUSLA was appropirate for the film. Once I decided what to name the film, I started working on the identity of the film’s name. I had a lot of options to choose from in the end and I finally chose the font - Built Titling, because it was a simple yet bold and tall font that went well with the film’s story and my main character, Mira. I edited the last alphabet of HAUSL”A” even more because I am revealing Mira’s face in the end and it gave that feel to the designed title.
HAUSLA HAUSLA
HAUSLA
HAUSLA HAUSLA HAUSLA HAUSLA HAUSLA HAUSLA HAUSLA
HAUSLA HAUSLA
HAUS HAU
HAUSLA HAUSLA
HAUS
HAUSLA
AUSLA AUSLA
AUSLA AUSLA
AUSLA
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HAUSLA HAUSLA HAUSLA HAUSLA HAUSLA HAUSLA HAUSLA HAUSLA
HAUSLA HAUSLA
HAU HAU
• Editing Once the shooting was done, I started compiling all the videos together to see the final outcome and then edited out whatever was not needed or I felt was unnecessary in the film. I have used cinemascope frame for the film with color correction to match all the scenes. I downloaed Red Giant for Adobe Premiere (Mac) to edit the film. Other softwares that I used were, Adobe Audition for editing the music that I bought online and Adobe Illustrator for the film’s title and other collaterals for social media promotion.
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• Film - Hausla The film is about 6 minutes long with music and credits included.
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Presentation
Project Book
Finalize and put it
Make the souvenir
Make label for the bottles
Buy the materials required
SOUVENIR/MEMENTO
Post the video
Test print and final print of posters and share
Branding, Make pages on social networking websites, Design video/film poster, Design digital/print posters
POS MATERIALS/ MARKETING IDEAS
Screening the video/film
Compile the videos - Final editing
Seek feedbacks
Video shooting
Finalising actors, Make-up artist, Cinematographer, Buy/ rent equipments, Permissions
Final content development Story board, Script
VIDEO/FILM
W1
W2
W3
W4
W5
W6
W7
W8
W9
W10 W11 W12 W13
Timeline
Budget My initial budget was Rs.48,000/- but it crossed 60,000+ because I had to shift my shoot from Mumbai to Baroda. The traveling expenses, the new cast and crew, food, transportation, equipments. VIDEO/FILM Actors
10,000/-
Prosthetic make-up artist
10,000/-
Cinematographer
5000/-
Rent for equipments
8000/-
Music
4000/-
POS MATERIALS/MARKETING IDEAS Video/film poster printing
1000/-
PROMOTIONAL/MARKETING GIVE AWAYS Materials (Glass bottles, thin ribbon rope)
1500/-
Tag printing
1000/-
Project book printing
1500/-
TRAVELING/TRANSPORTATION/FOOD Train tickets Food for the entire cast and crew
TOTAL
4500/15,000/-
Rs 61,500./-
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Promotional Strategy For promoting the film, I made social media pages on facebook, Instagram and Twitter. FACEBOOK
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• Cover Photos for the Facebook Page
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• Promotional edits for the Facebook Page
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• Posts on Instagram
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Promotion went on till 30th September, 2015 and the film released on 1st October’2015. I uploaded behind the camera scenes, number of days to go posts and more screenshots from the film to make people curious about the film before it’s release.
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FILM POSTER
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Post-Release • FINAL SUBMISSION
• YOUTUBE The film was released on 1st October 2015 on YouTube. The film had crossed 10k views in a week, post it’s release and by 28th December’2015, the film had 49k+ views. Lot of people commented and liked the film on YouTube. • FACEBOOK The film was shared on Hausla’s Facebook page the same day it was released on YouTube and the film got positive reviews and reached more than over 100,000+ people with 2k+ likes and 100+ shares by 28th December’2015. • FILM ON SOCIAL MEDIA Hausla, featured on a lot of different social based websites and was well appreciated by the public. Sites where Hausla got featured: 1) Storypick http://www.storypick.com/you-cant-put-me-down/ 2) Videokaku http://www.videokaku.com/2015/10/hausla.html 3) Firefly Daily http://www.fireflydaily.com/a-short-film-describing-how-life-changes-after-acid-attack/ 4) Desinema http://desinema.com/we-dont-want-to-say-anything-about-thing-video-spare-6-minutesfigure-it-out-yourself/
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References Websites [1]
Take a faceeless selfie - Donate a face to an acid attack survivor http://www.stopacidattacks.org/2015/04/take-faceless-selfie-donate-face-to.html
[2]
Acid attack survivor calendar http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2015/03/12/acid-attack-survivor-calendar-showsbeauty-is-much-more-than-a-pretty-face/
[3]
Acid attack statistics http://www.asfi.in/webpage.php?title=Statistics+&p_type=1&parent=76&catid=78
[4]
Take a faceeless selfie - Donate a face to an acid attack survivor http://www.stopacidattacks.org/2015/04/take-faceless-selfie-donate-face-to.html
[5]
Laxmi: Story of a braveheart http://www.stopacidattacks.org/2013/05/laxmi-story-of-braveheart.html
References [1]
Stopacidattacks.org,. ‘Take A Faceless Selfie. Donate A Face To An Acid Attack Survivor’. N.p., 2015. Web. 16 June 2015.
[2]
Malhotra, Aditi. ‘Acid Attack Survivor Calendar’. WSJ. N.p., 2015. Web. 16 June 2015.
[3]
Asfi.in,. ‘ASFI : Statistics’. N.p., 2015. Web. 16 June 2015.
[4]
Stopacidattacks.org,. ‘Take A Faceless Selfie. Donate A Face To An Acid Attack Survivor. ~ Stop Acid Attacks’. N.p., 2015. Web. 16 June 2015.
[5]
Stopacidattacks.org,. ‘Laxmi: Story Of A Braveheart ~ Stop Acid Attacks’. N.p., 2015. Web. 17 June 2015.
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Akanksha Negi Term: 12th - Visual Communication Ma jor Project - Project Book Faculty: Daniel Santos 48