Cassettes in the Modern Word
Remember audio cassettes? Those rectangular boxes of magic that filled the 90s with our favorite tunes, defining an era of pop culture. Now, imagine if today's generation used cassettes to share music. I did just that, and it led me to collaborate with two of India's finest musicians. Curious how it all happened? Keep reading to find out!
Service
Product Design, Visual Design
Sector
Movie
Year
2020
Story time!
During the lockdown in 2020, I was browsing through my shelf when I stumbled upon some old cassettes from American bands like Linkin Park and Oasis, along with a few Bollywood movie soundtracks. It had been ages since I last saw them, and with a designer’s eye, I was struck by the craftsmanship—especially the packaging. The cassettes included everything from tracklists to movie stills and a wealth of information, making me feel like I owned a piece of those movies. That sense of ownership is something today’s music distribution just doesn’t capture.
Driven by a desire to rekindle that nostalgic feeling with modern movies, I decided to create mockups and designs of recent films from Kerala, my home state in southern India, using the old-school cassette format. I shared my creations with the world on Instagram, hoping to evoke the same sense of nostalgia in others.

The content received a lot of appreciation from people, but to my surprise, one day, I received a message from none other than Sushin Shyam, a renowned music director in the Malayalam industry. He loved the idea and asked me to bring it to life. He wanted physical cassettes of the movies he had composed music for. Despite the rarity of cassettes today, I managed to source some and crafted real ones, which I then sent to him. The result are displayed below



Sushin Shyam also shared this on his Instagram. You can check it out here.
While this was happening, another music and movie director, Mr. Vineeth Sreenivasan, posted on Instagram about bringing back audio cassettes as a collectible for his upcoming film (You can find it here) To my surprise, Mr. Sushin Shyam saw the post and recommended my name.
Vineeth then reached out to me, and we discussed the design process and ideas I had while creating the cassettes for Sushin.
A few months later, Vineeth announced his next musical movie, 'Hridayam,' which included its soundtrack on audio cassettes. During the audio launch of the movie, Vineeth invited me to the event. Unfortunately, due to personal reasons, I couldn't attend. However, Vineeth was kind enough to send me one of the cassettes personally by post. Hridayam cassettes
The whole experience felt surreal to me, and I am incredibly thankful to both directors for reaching out to me despite their limited time. Their trust and support have been truly inspiring, and I’m honored to have been a part of such a unique project.
Ref:
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/malayalam/movies/news/makers-of-hridayam-to-partner-with-cassette-manufacturers-in-japan/articleshow/86605500.cms
https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/music/cassettes-cds-make-a-comeback-through-hridayam/article37908524.ece
See the full project on Behance
Cassettes in modern world
MORE PROJECTS