Indian Music Experience Museum
Cultural Installation
Bringing Kerala’s Snake Boat Races to Life at IME Museum
As an immersive media studio, we saw a perfect opportunity to bring Kerala’s legendary snake boat races and the tradition of Vallasadhya into a new, cinematic medium.
Our journey began on the riverbanks of Kerala, where we designed and tested a custom 180° camera setup to capture the energy of the Chundan Vallam races. The choreography of oars, the calls of the rowers, the shimmer of the water—everything needed to feel present and alive when viewed inside the museum. This meant building a tailored post-production pipeline to stitch, grade, and stabilize ultra-wide footage without losing detail or motion.
The storytelling didn’t stop at the races. We spent time documenting the cultural ecosystem around them: the grand Vallasadhya feast with its many dishes, and the colourful performances that frame the festival. These moments became narrative anchors inside the app, guiding visitors from spectacle to context—what they’re watching, why it matters, and how it connects to Kerala’s musical heritage.
Designing for a busy cultural institution came with its own constraints. The experience had to be robust enough for high daily footfall, easy for staff to operate, and intuitive for first-time visitors of all ages. We optimized media formats, refined interaction flows, and tested repeatedly on-site to ensure that the final deployment could run reliably at scale.
The result is an immersive 180° experience that extends IME Museum’s mission: transforming Indian music and culture from something you observe behind glass into something you inhabit. For us at Chaarana Labs, IME Museum is a milestone project that proves how spatial storytelling can deepen our connection to living traditions—without losing the authenticity that makes them powerful in the first place.