Los Angeles-based editor Kartikye Gupta has worked on major advertising campaigns and documentary projects, including four consecutive Super Bowl campaigns for T-Mobile and The Indrani Mukerjea Story: Buried Truth.
Editing the T-Mobile Super Bowl Commercial
Speaking about editing T-Mobile's 2026 Super Bowl commercial featuring the Backstreet Boys, Gupta said working with such iconic talent came with both opportunity and responsibility. "Backstreet Boys carry an enormous amount of cultural weight because the moment that music starts, people aren't just watching an ad anymore," he said.
According to Gupta, the challenge lies in identifying the most authentic moments from hours of footage. "The challenge is never finding something that works. It's finding the thing that works best — the truest version of that moment," he explained. He added that nostalgia played a key role in the campaign's appeal. "Nostalgia needs room to breathe. If you cut too fast, you don't give the audience time to feel the recognition."
Supervising The Indrani Mukerjea Story
Gupta also served as supervising editor on The Indrani Mukerjea Story: Buried Truth, a project that required extensive research using interviews, archival footage, court documents and media reports. "The research process on a project like this is immense. My job as supervising editor is to find the through line inside all of that — the shape of the story that serves the truth of what happened," he said.
Discussing the challenges of true-crime storytelling, Gupta noted, "You have a responsibility to the audience to be clear about what is known and what is disputed. Every editorial decision carries that weight."
Consistency Across Genres
For Gupta, whether it's a Super Bowl commercial or a documentary series, the goal remains the same: creating a story that resonates with audiences while staying true to its emotional core.
