Madman of Indian advertising film making
Advertising man Prahlad Kakar is a self-confessed lunatic, so much so that he is the title of his recently released autobiography, published by Harper Collins. The back cover is typically scandalous Prahalad. He’s an easy-going guy who hides more than he can mention with just his hat (he’s also a huge hat collector). It’s on the beach and the dog is positioned right behind him, between his legs. People ask me if the dog was placed there or if it was a dummy dog, but the photographer just clicked because the dog happened to be there at that moment, Kakar says in his book I laughed and said this in a Zoom interview that lasted more than an hour. He emphasizes that it is these spontaneous moments that make for great advertising films.
Kakkar, who has made many memorable ad films, is a multifaceted man who has also dabbled in restaurants, cigar making and even opened a scuba diving school in the Lakshadweep Islands. But all his interests, he insists, were fueled by his work in advertising films. His detailed book is filled with quirky and bizarre anecdotes from events he and his team experienced while making the film. Excerpt from interview:
You’ve worked with some top brands, from Pepsi and Britannia to Jenson & Nicholson and Maggi. Which advertising film do you think is your most memorable and satisfying?
It was a pleasure working with the Pepsi team, namely Viva Rishi (head of marketing at the time) and her team. We were joint stakeholders and understood the brand well. Pepsi was in second place after Coke, so while they made fun of Coke, Coke studiously ignored Pepsi. The brand’s DNA was youthful, irreverent, anti-establishment, and subtly rebellious with its “Nothing Official” campaign. It reflected her entire DNA of the brand. In a country like ours, there are more informal than formal people. By chance, we were able to hit a real sweet spot. As far as the audience is concerned, it appealed to young and aspiring people and worked very well for the brand.
In your book, you say that creating the Pepsi ad was a game-changer for your production company, Genesis.
yes! Especially the work with Aishwarya and Aamir. So we had a dilemma and debated whether we should do it (the ad was going to be a copy of an international TVC featuring Michael J. Fox). If we do it well, they’ll imitate the cat, and if we do it poorly, they’ll say, oh, that’s terrible, they couldn’t even copy it properly. So it wasn’t a win-win situation. It was difficult to recreate a very American mindset, but I realized that in terms of attitude and leadership style, Mumbai was much closer to New York than Delhi. If it works in Mumbai, other parts of the country will also embrace it. We have arranged the storyline and given it an Indian twist with our own input. Casting was very important.
And did I mention that I stood my ground to cast Aamir Khan instead of SRK in the TVC?
Yes, Aamir had just achieved a huge success with QSQT. He was riding high and was a symbol of youth at the time. So, we found a sweet spot and took the whole of Bombay and the rest of the country by storm. And it was in her four seconds that Aishwarya Rai appeared in an ad, and she rose to fame and stardom almost instantly. We have received over 3,000 questions asking “Who is Sanju?” She became an overnight sensation.
In my book, you’ll find that some of the most successful campaigns have just happened. My belief is that spontaneity is the real reason for virality. You can’t plan for your ad to go viral. Your ad should include something that captures the moment in time. Then the campaign becomes history. Consider the line “There’s nothing official about it.” It came from Anuja Chauhan of JWT, who was a trainee and junior member of the team at the time. When she asked why we were so shocked by the fact that Pepsi was not an official sponsor of the Cricket World Cup (of which Coke was an official sponsor), everyone was confused. But it was a work of pure genius. Viva instinctively put her finger on his pulse and said there was a leg in that line.
Are you inadvertently an advertising video producer?
I wanted to make a feature film and decided to work with Shyam Benegal. I, as well as people outside the industry, always thought that we could make a better movie than what we saw. So, I joined Shyam Babu and worked with him on an ad film and then a full-fledged feature film ‘Ankur’. (Anchor was Shyam Benegal’s first feature film and also the debut of Anant Nag and Shabana Azmi. The film won three national film awards.) It made me humble. I couldn’t even imagine how much work it takes to make a feature film. It takes a lot of effort to translate the excitement of a script onto paper and onto the screen. Many movies have been made that never match this book. Let’s watch the Harry Potter movies. When I read the book, it was very visual, and when I saw the movie, I saw that the director had done a great job with it. He perfectly understood the visual essence of the book.
You called yourself Shyam Benegal’s slave in the book. So was it difficult to work with him?
Shyam Babu said that filmmaking is multifaceted and that was a great learning experience. If you limit yourself or your role, you are not learning. People say this isn’t my job because filmmaking today has very clearly defined lines of assistant director, production manager, etc. Shyam Benegal teaches that everything about filmmaking is up to you, whether there’s pigeon droppings on the set, a missing earring, lunch not being on time, or the leading lady having a tantrum. It was his job. Everything is your job. The moment you say it’s none of your business, you’ll be punished even more. Everything that happens on set is your business, he says.
How do you think advertising techniques have changed?
We’ve really lost our way in terms of technology and content. Technology has become so easy and amazing that there are no challenges when it comes to what you can do with visual content. Now that technology is free and available to everyone, advertising has become very similar. There are one or two directors who can still grab you by the scruff of the neck in terms of content and storytelling. When technology is used as a tool, it becomes part of your craft. It helps you tell your story, but it can become boring if you overwhelm it. That’s what the advertising industry is experiencing.
As a filmmaker, have you also transitioned to using new technologies?
I’m a dinosaur. Technology has made me afraid of sunlight. But I have enough young people around me that I can tell them what I need. I want them to leverage technology in my storytelling, and they do that too. You’ll be amazed at how much easier things can be, sometimes just by pressing a button. He can film two people in two different locations and make it look like they are having a conversation. Previously, you had to put in a lot of effort to bring two people together. Nowadays, movie stars can be filmed in different locations and the rest of the commercial can be shot around them. Technology should make storytelling better and technology should be used in invisible ways. If technology takes over storytelling, you’re dead.
Are you planning to make your own feature film?
Now, I’ve written the script, but what I’m worried about that I’m going to be trapped in the film industry is that everything has become so professional except for the finances. Artists write in their contracts that if they don’t receive the tranche by the deadline, they won’t come to shoot, but they give us money in rags. Now, if you’re given a block of dates, the next block of dates is assigned to someone else. Therefore, if the shoot is delayed by a week due to payment, you will lose a lot of time. You can’t keep following the stars for dates or get paid on time.
From a scuba diving school to a restaurant owner, he has various avatars… Which is the real Prahlad Kakar?
(laugh heartily) If you truly love what you do, it will resonate with people who went into the profession against the advice of their parents and friends and made a decent living out of it. There were a lot of lifestyle and creative decisions to make, but filmmaking was at the center of them all. This allowed me to start a diving school and subsidize it until it became profitable. It helped me start all of my hobbies: wine making, cigar making, and opening a restaurant. It was really fun. We never took money from outsiders and there was no pressure to give it back. Everything we produced, we invested in various businesses.
(Tag Translate) Madman
