From the bouncer to the woman hitting on him at a plush bar, the pilot and his hair dresser included, Manoj Bajpayee is recommended every series under the sun on Amazon Prime, except his own, The Family Man.
Chetan Bhagat is a police inspector whose passion for the job is unlike any other in the country because an FIR for him is not to be solved, but to be turned into his next bestseller book.
A local caped crusader who instead of flying, pins his hopes on the effectiveness of Gulf Oil for reaching the crime scene.
All these comprise the concept of some of the advertisements that won at the 9th edition of the prestigious IndIAA Awards presented by the India Chapter of International Advertising Association. While there were several award categories, the common thread binding the ones mentioned above is how all the main characters are related to Bollywood in some way, reminding us that some of the most memorable ads have featured actors, directors and writers from the film industry.
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Take Bhagat for example, with several of his books being turned into movies. The ad in question was the campaign ‘StuckAtTheWrongJob’, aiming to inspire individuals to pursue their passions and break free from career constraints. Henry Harvin Education, an ed-tech platform for upskilling and reskilling programmes for young professionals collaborated with Bhagat for the campaign video, which features a couple in a police station to report the kidnapping of their son, but Inspector Bhagat is more interested in turning the incident into the script for his next book, implying that he’s stuck in the wrong job.
We asked Bhagat about his experience about working on the ad. “I am the brand ambassador for Henry Harvin and they wanted to make an ad. The idea was to make something that is clutter breaking, unique and fun, especially because it was to be mostly for social media and YouTube, etc. We worked with the agency and I was involved in a lot of creative discussions as well. Even though I’m a brand ambassador, I could have just shown up, but being a content creator, I wanted to be involved. And they came up with this great concept and the only challenge was they said, you have to act in it as the inspector. If I couldn’t pull it off, it wouldn’t work. It wasn’t just me playing myself, which typical brand ambassadors do. The celebrity plays themselves only. So I took up the challenge. It was executed quite well and we shot it in one day. I never thought it will go ahead and win an award in a time where we have so many ads being made for social media,” Bhagat told us.
The humour in the ad reminded us of the golden age of TV ads, where its coupling with the Bollywood element led to ads which till today are considered classics.
The lovable Ambuja Cement ad about two warring brothers featuring Boman Irani in a double role, before he became famous through the Munna Bhai movies. The comic duo of Pankaj Kapur and Javed Jaaferi in the Maggi Hot & Sweet Tomato Chilli Sauce commercials, directed by Prahlad Kakkar, with lines like ‘Boss has gone for a toss’ that made us giggle. The ads are many, but one jingle that is difficult to forget, was the one headlined by actress Sangeeta Bijlani, and featuring the Fantastic Four, ‘Hema, Rekha, Jaya and Sushma, sabki pasand, washing powder Nirma!