Tags:
Journalism of Courage
The great Indian journey
Three years ago, they devised an unusual concept to sell India to the Indians8217; in the 50th year of independence. Today, Bharatbala and Kanika Meyr Bharat are expanding their target base to encompass the global village and market India worldwide.
quot;My father was a freedom fighter and felt I should use my own creative space to do something for my country. I looked at his observation from an ad man8217;s perspective and thought of the best possible vehicle to excite the whole nation and invoke our dormant pride,quot; says Bala, who had already spent 10 years building his reputation as the automobile tyre ad specialist inChennai and Mumbai before he launched Project India8217;.
Such was his dedication to this new mission, that he actually took sanyas from advertising and plunged headlong into packaging Vande Mataram, the album, six music videos and 250 one-minute films on India. quot;If you feel about something as passionately, you have to give it your whole. Even A R Rahman, who has a packed calendar, took six months off to work on the album,quot; says Kanika, who started off as her husband8217;s assistant and worked her way to editing and co-producing all of BharatBala Productions8217; films. In 1997, Vande Mataram won accolades at the Cannes and New York Film festivals bagging prizes in the Best Campaign of the Year8217; category.
quot;We have used national property 8212; our landscape, history and heritage 8212; to bring back the magic and glory of the tricolour. Our aim was never to offend the traditionalists, and thankfully we weren8217;t accused of abusing or misusing India. On our part, we applied even better standards of production that wedid for ad films,quot; says Bala.
Vande Mataram8217;s two-part series 8212; the second featuring Lata Mangeshkar 8212; created history of sorts, by being telecast on virtually every TV channel in the country. And in the process of filming these videos and short films, the duo travelled the length and breadth of India, covering nearly 60,000 km by road and built themselves a huge reputation. quot;Before Mr Vajpayee8217;s bus trip to Lahore, the government approached us to create a song for the occasion.
And a couple of months ago, S P Hinduja, who is a close friend of Michael Jackson, approached us for an Indian act at his concert,quot; says Bala. Ekam Satyam, Kanika8217;s brainchild, was created in just 10 days with some help from Rahman, Shobhana, Raju Sundaram, Prabhu Deva and Manish Malhotra. quot;I chose Ekam Satyam as my theme because I wanted a universal concept and this Sanskrit term stands for the one universal truth,quot; says Kanika.
She penned the lyrics herself, under the guidance of a Sanskrit scholar, recordedthe song and had Raju choreograph the act using hip-hop dancers from Germany!
Looking back, both acknowledge that Vande Mataram has surpassed their wildest expectations. But right now, there8217;s no time to rest on past laurels for, there are millennium deadlines to be met for another big idea8217;. quot;The higher you go, the greater the realisation that there8217;s more to be done. We haven8217;t achieved anything yet,quot; says Bala.
