It turns out that animation was never really an option, as animation-work of that nature would have been from 10-15 times more expensive than a real shoot.

So, on only Rs 30 million (Rs 3 crore), O&M was able to finish 30 different ads. Each spot is roughly 20-30 seconds long.

In order to create the otherworldly animated effect, only women of slight build -- and occasionally children -- were cast as ZooZoos, to enhance the contrast between their big heads and bellies and their tiny limbs. The women came from Mumbai dancing troupes and ballet groups, which explains the ZooZoos' fluidity and grace, despite their goofiness.

The sets were done in neutral greys, to draw maximum attention to the ZooZoos. Varma then shot the spots in a high-speed format, which gave the impression of animation. Rao and Varma have said that the most difficult aspect was the artwork necessary to bring ZooZoos to life.

With the actors' real faces hidden by the hard foam headpieces, how would ZooZoos show emotion?

They decided to keep it simple, by pasting on exaggerated impressions to fit the ZooZoos emotional disposition. One minute the ZooZoos is super-happy with an ear-to-ear grin. The minute the ZooZoo is frightened, its mouth pursed in tight 'O'.