Priya Ahluwalia shapes a world from collection to camera for PUMA
For the latest chapter of her ongoing collaboration with Puma, Caviar's Ahluwalia expanded her role into filmmaking, building a campaign that brings together football, community and movement.
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Increasingly, brands are exploring new ways of collaborating with creatives, working more fluidly across disciplines to shape projects from concept through to execution. For designers like Priya Ahluwalia, that can mean not just creating the collection, but directing the world it lives in.
For the latest chapter of her ongoing collaboration with Puma, Ahluwalia expanded her role into filmmaking, building a campaign that brings together football, community and movement. Shot in Marrakech, the film draws on a rich visual language shaped by Afrocentric colour, local environments and the social culture surrounding the game.
“I’d been really interested in making film part of the campaign from the beginning,” says Ahluwalia. “With this second drop, there was more space to build out a world. It became about more than product, it was about the feeling around it.”
That world-building began in research. While initial references were rooted in West Africa, Ahluwalia’s thinking broadened to consider football culture across the continent more widely. “I was thinking about heritage, community and the contribution African athletes make to world sport,” she explains.
“Football, at its most basic level, is for everyone. That’s what I wanted to capture.” Crucially, the design and the film developed in parallel. Rather than treating the campaign as a separate execution, the visual language of the clothing directly informed the cinematic approach. Colour palettes, graphic references and material choices all fed into how the film was shot and structured.
“On this project, the design and the moving image language were very closely linked,” she says. “I didn’t want it to feel like product placed into a film. I wanted it to feel like it existed naturally within that world.”
Credits
View on-
- Production Company Caviar/London
- Director Priya Ahluwalia
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Credits
View on- Production Company Caviar/London
- Director Priya Ahluwalia
- Editing Final Cut/London
- VFX The Ntwrk Online
- Color No.8
- Sound Design Sonic Brand
- Creative Director Priya Ahluwalia
- Executive Producer Sorcha Shepherd
- Producer Micheal Newton
- Local Producer Yazid Bezaz
- DP Rick Joaquim
- Editor Alessandro Dordoni
- Assistant Editor Carter Clarke
- Post Producer Nikki Porter
- Colorist Jonny Tully
- Executive Producer Ollie Ireland
- Sound Designer Alessandro Dordoni
- Post Producer Natania Boyce
Explore full credits, grab hi-res stills and more on shots Vault
Credits
powered by- Production Company Caviar/London
- Director Priya Ahluwalia
- Editing Final Cut/London
- VFX The Ntwrk Online
- Color No.8
- Sound Design Sonic Brand
- Creative Director Priya Ahluwalia
- Executive Producer Sorcha Shepherd
- Producer Micheal Newton
- Local Producer Yazid Bezaz
- DP Rick Joaquim
- Editor Alessandro Dordoni
- Assistant Editor Carter Clarke
- Post Producer Nikki Porter
- Colorist Jonny Tully
- Executive Producer Ollie Ireland
- Sound Designer Alessandro Dordoni
- Post Producer Natania Boyce
A key creative decision was to centre the film around a young girl, gently shifting away from the male-dominated narratives that still define much of football culture. “I always knew the protagonist would be a girl,” Ahluwalia says. “Not in a heavy-handed way, just someone who loves to play. That felt true to the spirit of it.”
Production in Marrakech brought its own challenges, particularly with time constraints and limited access to equipment. Without the ability to rely on more traditional setups, the team had to find alternative solutions on the ground, building rigs and adapting to the environment in real time. “There were things we simply couldn’t get access to,” she says. “So we had to think laterally. That kind of problem-solving ended up shaping the energy of the film in a really positive way.”
For Sorcha Shepherd, Company Director and Executive Producer at Caviar: "Priya represents a new generation of multi-disciplinary directors, moving fluidly between design, creative direction and filmmaking without seeing boundaries between them. She brings a fully formed perspective to the work, both visually and conceptually, which shifts the dynamic from the outset. We’re moving towards more collaborative projects, where authorship is shared earlier on in the process. With Priya, that sense of ownership is very clear, she’s building worlds that feel personal, culturally grounded and relevant.
Brands like PUMA are embracing that shift, working with talent not just to execute, but to shape the narrative. This project is a strong example of what that kind of collaboration can unlock." For Ahluwalia, holding multiple roles is less about control and more about cohesion. “I care about the product, I care about the brand, and I care about the film as its own piece of work,” she says. “Because I was involved right across all of it, I didn’t feel the need to over-explain the product. It could just exist naturally within the story.”
The result is a film that prioritises feeling over performance. Its closing sequence, a loose, communal football game played at dusk, captures the tone Ahluwalia set out to achieve: something open, participatory and grounded in joy.
“It’s not about perfection,” she says. “It’s about people coming together and taking part. That’s what I wanted people to feel when they watch it.”
As more creatives move fluidly between disciplines, projects like this point to a broader evolution in commercial storytelling, one where the boundaries between design, direction and narrative continue to blur.
