Five men who sold us dreams

Fondly remembering five advertising greats I knew and worked with.

Piyush Pandey (1955-2025) and I were colleagues at Ogilvy from 1984 to 1991 — he in Mumbai, I in Kolkata. Sometime in the mid-1980s, Mani Ayer, the then managing director of Ogilvy, hand-picked 10 of us for a weekend retreat. The 10 so-called happening kids on the block — direct with the MD. Piyush was the oldest among us. He was over 30, the rest of us in our mid-to-late 20s.

One piece of advice Ayer gave us was precious: “Take your work seriously, but don’t take yourselves too seriously.” Soon after our weekend retreat, nine of us got promotions in the two departments we were in: Client servicing and creative. One did not. He was gently moved out of client servicing and given a new, odd-sounding designation: copy chief (languages). Sweet irony. The guy who was seemingly being shunted around went on to become “India’s David Ogilvy”. (Pandey, dekho kya term create kiya tumhare liye!)

Cut to 2022. Both of us happened to be in Goa at the same time. So, we made a plan. Dinner at Fat Fish, Arpora. Politics was off the menu. Starters: Nostalgia from our eight years at Ogilvy; updating ourselves about former colleagues. Main course: Bringing each other up to speed about our families. Piyush always had so many stories to proudly share about his siblings (including, of course, Ila Arun and Prasoon Pandey). Dessert: Illness. Life. Legacy. Three hours just flew by. That was our last meeting.

Sumit Roy, our former colleague at Ogilvy, has this to say: “A word about the person who gave Piyush the platform he needed. It was Suresh Mullick who spotted Piyush’s ability and had him head the Language Department. From that moment, Piyush never turned back. Together, they united India with Miley Sur Mera Tumhara. Suresh’s heart was rooted in Hindustani classical music. Piyush’s heart was rooted in Hindustan.”

Suresh Mullick (1940-2003) was the creative director at Ogilvy, who conceived the iconic film Spread the Light of Freedom, launched on Independence Day, 1987. The following year, Suresh came up with another Big Idea — Ek Sur, later renamed Mile Sur Mera Tumhara. In Piyush’s words, here’s what happened: “Mile Sur was the late Suresh Mullick’s concept. So, he gave me the opportunity to write the lyrics for his film. He had so many top lyricists in Mumbai to choose from, but he opted for me. I wrote the entire song over a dozen times till he approved it. Then, the voice of Pandit Bhimsen Joshi turned some ordinary lyrics into magic.”

In a similar manner, the generous Piyush gave credit to Rajeev Rao. Yes, it was Rajeev who created the memorable commercials for Hutch, which featured pugs.

Rituparno Ghosh (1963-2013) was a genius. The world fondly remembers him as a multiple award-winning national and international film director, who famously directed Aishwarya Rai in Chokher Bali. But before all that fame and glam, Rituparno was in advertising. He was a creative director at Response, Kolkata, an agency set up by the irrepressible Ram Ray. Ritu’s office was within walking distance of mine. He would infrequently come across during the lunch break, but never ate a morsel. We once compared salaries: A cool Rs 9,000 a month!

Pradeep Guha and Bhaskar Das were two of my favourite rock stars of the advertising/media world in Mumbai. The yarns, the fond memories created over decades, will run into many columns. These two flamboyant media magicians who lived life king-size on Mumbai’s allegorical equivalent of Madison Avenue were quintessential Bengali babus at heart.

Postscript: There were other advertising greats. The only reason they do not feature in the list above is because I did not know them personally: Alyque Padamsee, Subhas Ghosal, Gerson da Cunha… and many more. To all of them: May you Rest In Perfection (RIP).

The writer is MP and leader, All India Trinamool Congress Parliamentary Party