# Durgam Cheruvu — hook video (2 min)

The entry point for the 13-chapter series at
https://cashlessconsumer.zo.space/durgam-cheruvu. It assumes you know nothing: it opens on
the lake itself, says what a *cheruvu* is and why that matters, and only then produces the
number. Nine scenes, every figure carrying its claim label on screen.

- **File:** `durgam-cheruvu-hook.mp4` — 1920×1080, 30 fps, H.264 + AAC, 122.8 s
- **Share link:** https://zo.pub/cashlessconsumer/durgam-cheruvu-hook
- **Embedded at:** https://cashlessconsumer.zo.space/durgam-cheruvu (assets
  `/media/durgam-cheruvu-hook.mp4` and `/media/durgam-cheruvu-hook-poster.png`)
- **Voice:** edge-tts `en-IN-PrabhatNeural`, rate +4%

## The intro problem this version fixes

The first cut opened on `₹2,833 crore` and never named the lake in narration. A viewer
without context had no idea which lake, where, or why a pond in Hyderabad was worth a
minute of their attention. The rewrite spends its first two scenes establishing the object
before the transaction:

- **s1** names the place and the recognition hook — *the lake you have driven past* — in
  Madhapur, Jubilee Hills and Raidurg, the one the cable bridge crosses.
- **s2** delivers the reframe that makes every later chapter legible: **a *cheruvu* is not a
  pond.** It is an engineered tank with a bund, a sluice, a surplus weir and a catchment it
  was sized for.
- **s3** then produces the number — ₹2,833 crore, 300 m from the water — as the payoff,
  rather than as an unexplained opening.

## Scenes

| # | Kicker | On-screen | Narration covers | Claim label |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| s1 | Durgam Cheruvu · Madhapur · Hyderabad | "You have driven past this lake." | the place, the cable bridge, Golconda's tank, 400 years | start here — chapter 01 |
| s2 | What you are actually looking at | "It is not a pond." | bund, sluice, surplus weir, catchment; FTL in one line | definition — chapter 01 |
| s3 | August 2026 | ₹2,833 crore | two plots ~300 m from the water, a city record | official claim — TGIIC e-auction |
| s4 | The parcels | 10.63 acres · ₹266.53 cr/acre | Survey No. 83/1, Raidurg Panmaktha, P1 + P2, ₹175 cr reserve | official claim — auction brochure |
| s5 | The same survey number | Six claimants | TGIIC, SBI, Jamia Nizamia Waqf, DLF, a society, the 2007 judgment | court finding — see chapter 04 |
| s6 | The rocks | 2.5 billion years | G.O. Ms. No. 4 of 2003; the auction went ahead | our inference — no stay recorded |
| s7 | And the lake itself | 2.7 mg/l (bar to 5.0) | fish deaths, two STPs over capacity, admitted sewage | official claim — TGPCB / irrigation |
| s8 | One correction | Not a notified BHS | Ameenpur (4 Nov 2016) is Telangana's only one | court finding — Biological Diversity Act s.41 |
| s9 | మన నగరం · ManaNagaram | Thirteen chapters | the series; every chapter carries its own source links | — |

Scene durations: 11.7 · 13.1 · 13.5 · 13.6 · 19.5 · 12.6 · 12.9 · 13.8 · 12.0 s.

## Re-rendering

```bash
cd /home/workspace/ManaNagaram/video/durgam-cheruvu-hook
python3 make_video.py     # renders renders/*.png + audio/*.mp3 + the final mp4
```

Narration text and on-screen copy live in the `SCENES` list at the top of `make_video.py`.
Scene duration is driven by the spoken length of each scene's narration (plus ~0.45 s of
tail), so editing the narration re-times the video automatically.

To refresh the embedded player and the share folder after a re-render:

```bash
# workspace copies
cp README.md _scenes.md make_video.py poster.png durgam-cheruvu-hook.mp4 storyboard_*.jpg dist/
zopub sync durgam-cheruvu-hook /home/workspace/ManaNagaram/video/durgam-cheruvu-hook/dist
# then, via the space tools, re-upload:
#   durgam-cheruvu-hook.mp4        -> /media/durgam-cheruvu-hook.mp4
#   poster.png                     -> /media/durgam-cheruvu-hook-poster.png
```

## Design

Paper background (`#FBFAF7`), ink `#16150F`, teal `#0B6E5F`, ochre `#A8550A`, red `#B3261E` —
the same palette as the web series. Inter for Latin, Noto Sans Telugu for the మన నగరం
wordmark. Deliberately static-plus-slow-zoom: no stock footage, because the point is the
figures.

## Boundaries

No residents, protesters or affected families appear. Named parties are institutions and
public bodies, which is exactly the level the claims are made at. If a figure changes,
re-render rather than re-narrating over the old one.