Finally, India sings at Cannes

India walked up the prestigious Cannes stage three times last night. It won two golds in press lions and one in design.

The first one to go on stage were Publicis' Ashish Khazanchi and Nakul Chopra for their stunningly beautiful work for Planners Perspective, a global Publicis Planners summit. The art director behind the campaign was the highly talented Akash Das.

In the press lions, the first gold went to RMG, Gurgaon, for Fuji film. A subtle campaign for a subtle feature which comes with smile detection. The last one not only won a Gold lion in the art direction category but also a Silver lion in the illustration category. Again, a painstakingly crafted piece of work done by friend and ex-partner Santosh Padhi (when you haven't won yourself, you look for reflected glory!) from Taproot.

In fact, going by the Cannes rating system, Taproot is the number one agency so far with 12 points (7 for a gold and 5 for a silver) and Publicis has 10 points (with 1 gold and 3 shortlists). So, that's not bad at all, after a very bad start for the agency.

Wonder if the Ogilvys and JWTs will be able to catch up now, because there are only the very tough film and integrated categories left.

Incidentally, on the red carpet with three golds in hand, someone began singing Jana Gana Mana. The entire Indian contingent started singing too. It stopped everyone in their tracks. Quite a moment, it was!

During the India party, egos and lawsuits came together. They hugged, in fact. I told Aggie it was another version of his Aman ki Asha campaign!

Things to learn
Coming back to the awards show. The Grand Prix in press was won by AlmapBBDO, Sao Paulo. This, after a bit of a controversy. The initial Grand Prix conferred on Scrabble had to be withdrawn because the long-copy campaign had been entered in 2008. But I must say the organisers and the press jury headed by Mark Tutsel handled the issue well, something Indian advertising must learn from.

The Grand Prix in design was picked up by IQ Font (for Toyota), a piece of work done by a new agency, Happiness Brussels. This is a font created by collaborating with digital guys, a formula one racer, and designers.

The Grand Prix in cyber was taken by Nike Chalkboard. An awesome idea that let people write on the Tour de France from wherever they were. Today (Thursday) and tomorrow are holidays as far as award shows are concerned. I am writing this on my blackberry, standing in a long queue to attend the Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors Showreel. I thought after Bob Isherwood (erstwhile worldwide creative director of Saatchi & Saatchi) departed, maybe the session won't attract so much crowd. But, here we are. Hype has not died down at all. Hopefully, the wait in the line will be worth it.

The stunt Saatchi & Saatchi pulled off was stunning. They brought back the late Paul Arden (former executive director at Saatchi & Saatchi, who passed away two years ago) and made him present. That's it for now. Let's catch up tomorrow with the news for the shortlists for film and integrated categories. As always, my fingers are going to be crossed.

Emmanuel Upputuru, National Creative Director, Publicis India