R.Balki, the man behind some of the best feature films Bollywood has ever seen, CheeniKum, Paa and Pad Man, had left the world of advertising as Group Chairman of Lowe Lintas to go on and make films.
In the 19th episode of the weekly celebrity chat show Bollywood Talkies with Outlook, filmmaker R Balki spoke to columnist, author and host of the show Mitrajit Bhattacharya on creating iconic campaigns like Jaago Re, Daag Achhe Hain and What an Idea, Sirji. He also fondly shared his passion for Illayaraja’s music, working with Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar and Dhanush in this interview. The series is presented by Teacher’s Glasses.
Here is our favourite part from the conversation:
Setting the context Mitrajit Bhattacharya asked R Balki on how is advertising journey begin
To which R Balki said, “I was doing my masters and computer applications and one day I saw an ad in the paper from an advertising agency, Mudra, at that point of time, which said, describe yourself in 100 words. So I replied to the ad only because on top of the ad was that logo that used to come after every Buniyaad episode. And that was an ad, which was put out by Ramesh Sippy asking who am I? My stint at Mudra was about 7 years and after that in Lowe Lintas.”
Further Bhattacharya spoke to R Balki about the big three campaigns, from his long and illustrious career and highlighted the challenges and satisfaction of creating those campaigns.
Sharing an anecdote of the epic Tata Tea campaign, the Ad man said, “I along with my director friend were sitting at a coffee shop to crack a tea ad and we were discussing various points of the brief and about what they wanted. We told our self, forget where the leaves came from, forget how it’s packed and that’s what everybody’s been saying for so many years. Let’s think of what is different about Tata Tea from all other teas, and the biggest difference was Tata. Every other tea wakes you up every morning, while should a Tata tea just wake you up or should it awaken you? So how does one say it’s a better and a stronger tea? If it wakes you up to newer thoughts and better thoughts? And that’s how Jaago re happened, don’t wake up, awaken. That was the thought, and that’s how we came up with the Jaago Re Campaign.”
“Daage Ache Hai for Surf Excel has become a part of the culture and lingo!” said, Bhattacharya. He asked Balki that did he know the campaign would become so big?
R Balki replied, “I always thought there was a lot of power in the idea where a product celebrates its biggest competitor, which is dirt!So instead of saying how good I am! I should be aware of the competition and praise it too. And if you are not aware about your own abilities, you would never praise the competition, and that is why, Daag Acche Hai from a product point of view became a very powerful statement and was a beautiful process.”
Bhattacharya said, “All the three campaigns, Jaago Re, Daag Ache Hain and your third campaign, Kya Idea hai Sirjii have creative taglines that are easy and see more user generated messaging than forced brand communication, which has been the hall mark of all these three campaigns, and that is how they connected with the audiences at large! So tell us about how Kya Idea Hai sirjee happened?”
On the Idea, campaign of What an Idea Sirjii! Balki said, “I wrote the idea from the day the brand was formed and Sanjeev Agha was the CEO, we signed on Abhishek as the Brand Ambassador and I was telling Sanjeev that your brand name is only Idea, now the ad can’t say that my tariffs are so low and so, my network is so good and so on and so forth. We decided that every ad must say what an idea! It was one of those ads that came along back when remote education for people was a thing where people sitting in village could get the best education from anywhere and when people could say that ‘What an Idea!’ and that should be the thought!
If this conversation excites you then here is the link to the whole conversation!
https://www.facebook.com/Outlookindia/videos/329923744983114/
