Indian Music Experience Museum

Cultural Installation

Bringing Kerala’s Snake Boat Races to Life at IME Museum

People participating in a traditional boat race festival, many wearing white clothing and head coverings, on and near a river with decorated boats and lush green trees in the background.

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.

People gathered in a large hall for a feast called Vallasadya, with 64 dishes served on long tables, some standing and some seated, in Kerala.

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.

A person dressed as a traditional Indian performer in colorful attire, wearing a decorated crown and holding a small parasol, pointing towards the camera amidst a crowd of people near a riverbank during daytime.

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.