CALCUTTA CALLING
Price: $140.00 Code: 2262 |
Directed by Andre Hormann
2007, 17 minutes
Purchase: $140 Classroom Rental: $55
Business Process Outsourcing is the fastest growing industry in the world. In India, over 350,000 people are currently working in call centers. Vikeeh Uppal, or "Ethan Reed," is one of them. You may have already spoken with him.
This short but insightful documentary offers a revealing window into this new global economy. It follows Vikeel Uppal, a young man who works in a busy calling center selling cell phones and fire extinguishers to customers in America and Great Britain (for the record, he finds the British more polite).
Although he has never been out of Calcutta, Vikhee, who presents himself as Ethan to his customers, works hard to be a top seller in what's become a very competitive industry. He gets tutored in the English language, learns pronunciation from commercials and movies, and watches English soccer matches to gain insight into the people he calls on a daily basis. He is also very intent on maintaining Indian values and customs, even as he becomes further exposed to Western culture and consumerism. Nokia is his favorite cell phone brand and Levi's his favorite jeans, he tells us.
Calcutta Calling is a precise, immediate snapshot of globalization at work in the 21st century.
2007, 17 minutes
Purchase: $140 Classroom Rental: $55
Business Process Outsourcing is the fastest growing industry in the world. In India, over 350,000 people are currently working in call centers. Vikeeh Uppal, or "Ethan Reed," is one of them. You may have already spoken with him.
This short but insightful documentary offers a revealing window into this new global economy. It follows Vikeel Uppal, a young man who works in a busy calling center selling cell phones and fire extinguishers to customers in America and Great Britain (for the record, he finds the British more polite).
Although he has never been out of Calcutta, Vikhee, who presents himself as Ethan to his customers, works hard to be a top seller in what's become a very competitive industry. He gets tutored in the English language, learns pronunciation from commercials and movies, and watches English soccer matches to gain insight into the people he calls on a daily basis. He is also very intent on maintaining Indian values and customs, even as he becomes further exposed to Western culture and consumerism. Nokia is his favorite cell phone brand and Levi's his favorite jeans, he tells us.
Calcutta Calling is a precise, immediate snapshot of globalization at work in the 21st century.