It was a magical evening – the sky coloured by the raging hues of sunset and its reflection on the Arabian Sea providing the perfect backdrop as advertising industry veteran Kailash Surendranath took to the stage on the terrace of Free Press House, Mumbai to deliver the inaugural BrandSutra Annual Lecture. As the man behind the iconic ‘Mile Sur Mera Tumhara’ film and thousands of path-breaking brand commercials began to share stories from his life and work, playing out some of his famous ad films, it was as if a timeline of the history of Indian advertising was unfolding before the audience.
Be it the Liril soap ad with the visual of a young bikini-clad woman frolicking under a waterfall, or the Britannia Glucose biscuits commercial featuring actor Amjad Khan as Bollywood villain Gabbar Singh, or the campaign for washing powder Nirma, or the Only Vimal ads for Reliance, or Sunsilk shampoo ads (in the course of which he met his wife), or giving the Amul girl an animated avatar (in collaboration with Rahul da Cunha for Amul butter commercials), or the Campa Cola ad that launched Salman Khan, or the many films for national integration that he made as director and producer - ‘The Freedom Torch - Mile Sur Mera Tumhara’, ‘Raag Desh’, ‘Jhansi Ki Rani’ and ‘Phir Mile Sur’ - Surendranath’s huge body of work had the audience spellbound as did his back stories behind each of these campaigns.
A BORN FILM-MAKER
“I consider myself more of a film-maker. But I happened to be in the right place at the right time throughout my career, and somehow got involved with contributing to building many brands, which are still remembered today, after more than four decades. I started out at a time in advertising when it was primarily meant for the big screen at cinemas. But along the way came TV, along the way came Internet. Today, I'm working in a time when you have to think in terms of ads for five seconds, three seconds, two seconds…,” Surendranath said, adding how he would go to the film archives at the Film and Television Institute in Pune because that was the only access one had to Japanese and European classics, and how he tried to learn from the many friends he made among the cameramen, the editors, and conversations he had with them.
Born into a film family, he spoke of how he had automatically become a film-maker, how he gave up on his studies at IIT Kharagpur, just three days into his course. “I couldn't quite take it. My lifestyle had been quite different, being from South Bombay, partying and living the life as we do. So, I thought that this is just not meant for me. I came back and joined St Xavier’s College, still studying Physics and Maths. As John Lennon said, ‘Life is what happens to you when you're busy making other plans’. One day, I was driving down to college. I was barely 18 at the time. It was raining, and I ended up giving a ride to this young lady who was going to Lintas. Her name was Mobi Ismael and she found out that I made films, and asked whether I would do films for Lintas. I readily agreed,” he said, giving the audience a glimpse of that initial showreel he presented to Lintas. “Mobi saw the reel and she got me involved with the launch of this brand new soap (Liril), which they were going to pitch to Hindustan Lever.” The rest, as they say, is history.
HOW TIMES HAVE CHANGED
“In our time, we had a captive audience through Doordarshan. And there was less content coming at you, there was only that much to watch. Today, you can watch anything at any time on any screen that you want. Therefore, it's difficult to create something iconic today with more than two seconds of fame. If you get even that two seconds of fame, it's a big achievement. Because, what you say is viral today is forgotten the next day. It doesn't live forever, it doesn't have that immortality. You have to keep that in mind today when creating - don't expect anything to live forever. Great work is being done; technically wonderful work. But that's only as far as it'll go. There'll be so much all over the place to choose from for the audience. And you'll never really be able to say this is a classic,” said Surendranath. “While ‘Mile Sur Mera Tumhara’ was the biggest success of them all, both Arti and I thought we should do something to keep the song alive, to bring it to the younger generation. So when Zoom approached us in 2013 to do just that, we agreed to shoot it again with younger people and the current stars. To our surprise, no star said no to us. I hope the song lives on and on, while we wait for the new generation to make it yet again.”
With all this learning, with all the experience, the Surendranath couple has started another company, Mayavid Online LLP, and according to Kailash Surendranath, “it's a beautiful transition to creating streaming video content”. “Our first is a crime series for Applause Entertainment, ‘Chakravyuh: An Inspector Virkar Crime Thriller’ which went on MX Player. It has Prateek Babbar in it. We are writing the second season with a different cop, a different crime story. It's going to be good to go on OTT, as you can do longer format stories. You don't have to worry about box office. Also, from being in ads, we've learnt to give our content great production, precise editing. Of course, one always has to stay up to date. But there's something magical about OTT. A lot is being speculated about the future of cinema versus OTT, but both will co-exist with the way technology is moving on multiple screens in this country - faster and faster Internet and better and better content. It’s also making our work better and taking it to the international market. Just as Indian work is being seen abroad, Turkish work, Korean work, Spanish work, Brazilian work is being seen by the whole world including India. Languages are no longer the barrier. All you need is a subtitle,” Surendranath commented.
Talking of the future of streaming, Surendranath reasoned that it’s difficult to predict where it’s going. “But one thing I’m imagining is streaming on the Metaverse, where five different friends in five different parts of the world may decide to go to a movie together. You can make a plan and go into a theatre, sit next to each other and even hold hands if you want. It's going to be an incredible future. All I can say is, stay relevant to be part of it. You have to be open, you have to be humble and keep on learning. Be open so that you are always a student. Never ever get the feeling that you’ve learnt enough or done enough,” he concluded.
Glimpses of Kailash Surendranath’s iconic work |
Dr Sandeep Goyal, Managing Director of Rediffusion, felicitates Kailash Surendranath |
Kailash Surendranath looking at BrandSutra pages on display at the event |
The stage is set for the Annual BrandSutra Lecture on the terrace of Free Press House, Nariman Point, Mumbai |
