WhatsApp slows down to show what distance feels like

Conceptualised by Fundamental, WhatsApp has launched a campaign for rural India, which is designed to empower and include new users by making communication accessible to everyone, regardless of language literacy. By breaking down barriers to texting, this initiative to promote Voice Notes and Video Notes as alternatives to casual texting, opens up new opportunities for connection and participation across communities. 

Set in North-Central MP, the campaign launches with ‘Baatan Hi Baatan Mein’.

The story is inspired by millions of migrant workers who spend almost all of their time away from their families. For whom staying in touch isn’t always easy because of distance, quality of connectivity issues and, odd working hours.

The crux of the story is the role played by WhatsApp’s Voice and Video Notes in helping overcome those and making a union between two almost-strangers, Aasha and Manoj, blossom into something special.

Speaking about the campaign, Neeraj Kanitkar, co-founder of Fundamental said that for the campaign idea, the agency arrived at the strategy of pebbling—voice and video notes as simple acts of love whose sum is greater than the parts themselves. Given the sharp focus on rural India, it knew that they would need something audacious but also deeply human; just an ad wouldn’t do.

“So, we led with a sweeping long format story with protagonists that the audience could see themselves in and identify with. Then, of course, Amit Sharma came on board, sprinkled his magic on the script, found the amazing quarry which allowed us to situate the film geographically, a dialect coach lent great flavour to the script and thus was born, ‘Baatan Hi Baatan Mein’. We cannot wait for people to experience it as a short film in single-screen theatres and via travelling cinemas in remote locations,” he added.

Amit Sharma, the National-Award winning Indian director who created the film added, “From the very first narration, I wanted to treat this script with a cinematic lens. It has complex emotions that deserve a wide canvas and cultural authenticity. Because it isn’t the story of just Aasha and Manoj, it is a story that plays out with millions of Indians. The two leads, Rrama Sharma and Rajkishore Sahoo truly became the Aasha and Manoj that the story needed. I am so happy the film is getting distributed in such a unique manner. It’s a story that I believe should be seen by as many people as possible.”

Starting with the focus market of Madhya Pradesh, ‘Baatan Hi Baatan Mein’ will be playing in semi-rural and rural single-screen cinema theatres. Plus traveling cinemas will take it to over 240 villages and hamlets for community screenings. It will also be hosted as a short film on content platforms like Zee5 and JioHotstar.

This will be followed by multiple educational shorties and text–free ‘Ambient User Guides’ concentrated in rural India, which are designed to be understood without having to be read.

Campaign’s take: In a digital world obsessed with snackable ads, WhatsApp has quietly gone in the opposite direction, by dropping a near 10-minute short film with the emotional pace of a monsoon afternoon. Baatan Hi Baatan Mein, set in a North-Central Madhya Pradesh village, follows a newly married couple separated almost immediately by the husband’s migration for work. What could have become a brochure for product features instead unfolds as a textured long-distance romance powered almost entirely by voice and video notes.

The film’s charm lies in its everyday awkwardness: a labourer unsure of what to text his new wife, co-workers turning into unsolicited love coaches, and a young bride who hangs onto every incoming ping with equal parts excitement and dread.

The creative deftly reframes long-distance romance, which is usually narrated through an urban, hyper-connected lens. This one centres a rural reality where migration creates emotional gaps that technology quietly tries to bridge.

What works is the refusal to sermonise. WhatsApp isn’t positioned as a saviour; it’s simply the thread that keeps two strangers-turned-spouses learning each other in absentia. The dialect, setting, and title stay rooted in MP’s cultural rhythms, grounding the narrative in authenticity rather than gloss. For once, speed isn’t the story—emotional bandwidth is.