"Being macho could also be about addressing social issues"

My Best Compaign: Rupa Frontline

Why it is my best campaign
There are many ads which are close to my heart but this ad stands out as the best because it gave me the opportunity to break away from the clichéd advertising for an undergarment brand. This space is cluttered with Bollywood actors endorsing various undergarments. I was clear that I wanted to do it differently. I also wanted the campaign to have a social message because the target audience is the masses of this country. Voting is an issue with the masses, and the ad served both the purposes.

For this ad, I got Piyush Mishra on board to sing Tagore’s famous song Ekla Chalo Re. Despite being a Bengali song, it has a national appeal and is second only to Rahman’s Ma Tujhe Salaam in pan-Indian popularity. The song also echoed the philosophy of the Rupa Frontline brand —Raho duniya se ek kadam aage (stay a step ahead of the world). And Piyush’s rendition gave it a new feel altogether, making it stand out. Fortunately, through all these experiments, the Rupa Frontline team gave us full support.

The brand promotes machismo, but I wanted to convey the message very clearly that being macho could be about addressing larger social issues — like voting — than just fighting with hooligans. Here I have used hooliganism as a symbol of society’s obstructions. So this campaign gave me a lot of space for cerebral exercise, thus it is my best campaign so far.

Brief to the agency
The brief was to match the spirit of the target consumer and the Rupa team was very clear that it did not want too much glamourisation of the product. When this idea was pitched to Rupa, which has the lion’s share of the market, the team loved it. Through internal surveys, the brand had already started witnessing good response.

Problems & challenges
Every campaign has its challenges. Here, the selection of the director (Gajraj) was crucial and his availability was something we had to work out. The client was also keen on getting him so we decided to wait. We had to wait quite some time for the lead actor, too, as he was in the US for some work. However, everything about the ad had been so clear from day one that we decided to wait for the right person. From the inception to the shoot and the final edit, it took us close to three months. But it was worth it. Another issue that cropped up during this campaign was shooting at the right location. Like most shoots, we also encountered some problems while filming the advertisement.

Routes considered
We knew that voting was a sensitive issue in a place like Jammu & Kashmir, so our initial plan was to shoot there. However, that seemed like a narrow approach, so we went ahead with the idea and decided to showcase sub-urban India so everyone could relate to the ad. Our priority was also to handle the ad sensitively without making it look like a political campaign. I was happy that we were successful in maintaining an even tone throughout.

Routes chosen and why
While we wanted the lead character to be well built, we were also clear that he should not be a desi Arnold Schwarzenegger. Our target consumer is someone who fancies himself as performing some heroic act in the Indian way. The brand is positioned for the masses, but it also has to be fashionable enough to flaunt it.

Having experimented a lot with the campaign, I was very sure that I wanted to keep the Raho duniya se ek kadam aage brand message intact. Rupa was already the market leader and could therefore swallow the social message properly and convey it to the target consumer.

Piyus Mishra’s unusual vocals added a lot of depth to the ad. At one point he had told me to get some other singer as he was taking more than the anticipated time during the recordings. But he got into the skin of Rabindra Sangeet — and the outcome is there for all to see. His association was crucial because we were trying a rendition of one of the most celebrated songs by Rabindranath Tagore and it could have irked many if it was not up to a certain level. We got cast members of Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur to play the hooligans because they made it look very raw and organic.

Will it work today?
The idea is already working and has shown good results. I am sure even in future it will stand out and make an impact. Voting, booth capturing will remain issues in the near future and as long as people relate to its message, the ad will work.

Manish Bhatt
founder director, Scarecrow Communications