Adgully Exclusive | Striving to work with people rather companies: Publicis Ambience's Sankhe

Former British Prime Minister once famously said, "One secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes."

True success also involves hard work and a bit of luck, but it also depends on thinking out of the box, moving out of your comfort zone and moving into fresh waters.

If the above mentioned are the parameters of success, then Prasanna Sankhe, NCD Publicis Ambience, completely fits into scheme of things.

Sankhe, who wanted to be an architect initially, had to eventually settle down for Arts College as his SSC percentage were low. But like they say, it seems it turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

That's often the case of a successful person”the ability to make adversity your strength and create a niche for yourself. "I wanted to take architecture but on my SSC results. But I was let down by my SSC results as I could manage 81 per cent, as compared to initial target to get 85 per cent and above. From that time I decided I will never do anything theoretical and therefore I took arts and then never looked back," he reveals.

But Sankhe didn't let his disappointments take over his emotions and put in hard work to make a name for himself. It helped him quite a bit as he wanted to get exposure before lunging into the seas. "I got my job through campus placements. I wanted to get as much exposure as I could and the first three years of my career that's all I did," he recalls.

Sankhe can still remember his early days, when computer was not such a phenomenon, where one had loads of paperwork to get the things in order.

"When we started out we had two computers in Hindustan Thompson associate, and I had the privilege of doing the first art work in India. Till that time everything was handmade, wherein, you had to spray paint the shadow and put it as a layer and then put the logo. So everything used to be on paper.

"Then we got a file from Malaysia where everything was in a software program and it could be directly sent for print. I was on the job where I had figure out where layers are, so this was a very enlightening process. Since that day I have never done paper art work. Because technology is there to make our life simple," he says in an exclusive interaction with Adgully.

But for Sankhe the biggest challenge was to break a common notion”arts students don't like getting into communications or strategy. "It was perceived that students from JJ School of Arts are taken as Maharashtrian Art directors, who don't want to get into any communication or strategy. My greatest challenge has been to break out of that mode," he says.

And that was the time when Publicis Ambience decided to hire him and since then he has not looked back. Sankhe has climbed up the ranks while at Ambience. He joined as senior creative director after a stint with Alok Nanda and Co.

At Ambience, Sankhe has worked on campaigns for pest control brand Hit and Nerolac Paints, among others.

"This is my second stint in Publicis. I was here from 2000-2003 with Elsie Nanji and then she again called me in 2006. I have always been striving to work with people rather than places or companies. Elsie was a guru earlier and now she is a very great friend," he says.

And now in a managerial role, Sankhe believes that it's important to take care of everyone. "You see, if you take care of your people they will do anything for you. They will do the best work; they will keep the atmosphere happy so you just have to take care of your people.

"In a creative field, there are too many egos and there is a pride for an idea. So you have to very carefully tell them that why this idea does not work or else if you don't tell in the right way then they will feel very hurt. It is a very balancing act," he explains.

So is it really possible to get excited about an idea after almost 15-years?

"Well yes! You can feel that spring in the step when something cracks up in the head," he says

"Just keep thinking. Like sachin tendulkar once said, "if you don't feel jittery when you are about to score your first run or if you are about to score your 100 and you don't feel nervous then you should retire' because then you are not playing the game for the love of it. So it is the same thing with us, if you created an idea and you are not excited about it then what's the point," he adds.

After becoming the youngest national creative director, Sankhe grabbed the prestigious Cannes gold. "It always feels good to get recognition for your work. It is a platform to judge yourself. It tells you that you are still sharp and you are thinking something which is new in the world and therefore you are getting rewarded for it," says an exuberant Sankhe.

And with numerous projects like Citi bank, Park Avenue, RBI, and Lakme under him, life is looking good for Sankhe.

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