Just Push Play

Yet another Piyush Pandey prodigy, Joshi is all praises for the Ogilvy & Mather whiz. ‘‘All that I’ve learnt in advertising is from Piyush and Neil French,’’ he says. Comparison between O&M and McCann is inevitable. ‘‘O&M has a history of 70 years in India, while the Indian branch of McCann is merely six years old,’’ justifies Joshi whose move to the younger agency was propelled by Santosh Desai.

Desai, who heads Strategic Planning at McCann, is a man who Joshi refers to as his ‘‘partner in crime’’. Enthuses Joshi, ‘‘Santosh is the guy who has added some method to this madness with his pioneering work in strategic planning.’’

But there’s no method that can explain the chaos when deadlines loom large. ‘‘Even if you know your deadline date 10 days prior to the presentation, you’ll always end up working the night before,’’ explains Joshi adding, ‘‘But I don’t like stressing my guys out.’’ Joshi’s determination to renovate his office is a part of this de-stress process, since he hates cubicles, which seem to choke creativity. ‘‘I will use a lot of glass, so that people are not be cooped up in some corner of a cubicle, but observe the world around them,’’ he explains.

The creative head also has strong views about the culture of an ad agency. ‘‘This whole business is about people and relationships, so its culture is its working force,’’ he emphasises. But play doesn’t stop here. Amidst some cut-throat competition and clients who go for the jugular during presentations, Joshi juggles poetry.

‘‘My passion and profession feed on each other — there’s no harm if there’s a poetic touch to advertising and poetry could do with a bit of commercialisation,’’ says the man who penned the lyrics for Silk Route’s debut album Boond. Shubha Mudgal’s Abke Sawan and Man Ke Manjeere, followed and Joshi set the Bollywood ball rolling by writing the lyrics for Gaurang Doshi’s Aankhen. He’s just completed the lyrics for Kalpana Lajmi’s Kyon and an I-Dreams Production called Samay. ‘‘I have less time now,’’ replies Joshi who is into maximising his spare time, whether it’s in the car or while he’s waiting at some office. ‘‘If you love something you just find the time,’’ he reasons. Play on Joshi.