AgVoice | The Digjam Days; Part II

In our continuing series of ‘The Digjam Days’ we bring you the second instalment of the three part series to catch up with the  events that unfolded during the Digjam campaign shoot.

 

I came in to Digjam scene by accident. In 1991 I joined F S Advertising, the Frank Simoes sold out Delhi outfit. The agency was run by entrepreneur Rama Luthra and she had signed in Digjam, OCM Suitings and Exide batteries, all of which were then owned or managed by the VXL Birla Group, led by S K Birla. Since Exide was located in Kolkata, I was managing the business with a small but fancy office. One evening I got a frantic call from Rama asking me to fly down the very next morning. She seemed to be in a state of panic and I ran to the Indian Airlines counter at Hotel Hindustan and used my credit card to buy a passage. 

 

Next morning on reaching office I went in to a closed door meeting with my boss. There was a crisis. To cut the long story short, some people had hoodwinked the agency and the client in to “sponsoring” the World Para Gliding Show being held at Himachal and good money and time had been spent till they were thrown off the venue. Apparently some one, some where forgot to get the documents signed. The client was baying for the agency’s blood and Mr Birla, I was told was not in the country. There were great plans of putting together a film and stills with Shekhar and the paragliders. People had been transported to Lahul including a film and photography crew along with Shekhar and agency personnel.  I did not know how I could have helped the situation but when in crisis, it is better to talk straight. I asked Rama what she expected me to do and she replied, “Just hold my hand.”

 

As the team started returning in instalments, I started getting a clearer picture of what exactly happened. I also started getting in to the affairs of the Delhi Office since the Delhi head Deep Bisen had not yet returned from Himachal. When Deep returned, the poor fellow was dismissed. Though I know it was not all his fault, he was brave enough to take the blame and walk out with his head held high. He was a good guy, a friend and an experienced professional. My temporary role soon became permanent and I was given charge of both the suiting accounts plus Exide out of Kolkata which any way was my domain. 

It was during this period that I met Shekhar. He was one of my heroes and I was thrilled as a school kid meeting him in person. That very day we were both taking our flight back, he to Mumbai and I to Kolkata. He saw me at the departure lounge and walked up to me and we chatted till our boarding calls were announced. I found him easy, casual, no hang ups, down to earth person conscious of not flashing his halo. Once back in Kolkata I must have called up all my friends and told them about my new “colleague.” The only other celebrity whom I had for colleague was cricketing hero M L Jaisimha who used to head the Hyderabad branch of ACIL during 1980/83.

 

Since the para gliding fiasco took some time to die down, we ran some improvised campaigns that year and it was in 1993 when I was totally on the saddle and decided to start working afresh on a new campaign. The brief was simple. Digjam was going international and the theme around Sekhar had to be international. Naturally our first ploy was to go and shoot abroad and naturally, it was turned down by the client!

Derek Fernandes, the seasoned Art Director who was my senior colleague at Clarion way back in 1978 was brought in as a Creative Consultant and a set of ads featuring Shekhar in foreign settings were finalised. We decided to invest heavily in the production quality and Rama and I made a trip to Mumbai to do the reccee. We met Shekhar and he suggested talking to Rasna Behl to be the production and model coordinator. Bijon Dasgupta, the ace set designer was to be the set man and Ashok Salian, fresh from his latest success of Raymond’s was to be the photographer.

Thus started a relationship between me and Rasna Behl (who soon became Rasnaben) and Ashok, who since then has been like a blood brother . We still keep in touch and both of them made it a point to attend the launch function of my book Life in a Rectangle in April at Mumbai. Then there was Naynaben, Nayna Merchant who ran our Mumbai Office. Nayna had started her career with MCM and knew almost everyone in the city. She monitored me like an elder sibling and even today every time I am in Pune where she is leading a retired life, we meet for a meal or a cup of coffee.

 

The campaign consisted of three ads, showing the Digjam man in foreign locales. The first was Shekhar at a wine cellar with the wine master, presumably offering him a selection. The second was Shekhar waltzing away in Vienna in a ball room and the third was Shekhar having tea in an English countryside with a couple. Perfect settings for the Suitings for the Connoisseur, with very connoisseur like backdrops.

 

In addition to the theme campaign, we also developed a few ads for their exclusive brand King’s Choice which just featured Shekhar alone.

I made a few day trips to Mumbai to run Pre Production meetings with Rasnaben and Nayana ben. Derek came along with me a couple of times to discuss the photography with Ashok.  Bijon was fully briefed. Nayanaben was to coordinate locally and be our boss. A few meetings were held with Shekhar to brief him. The great advantage with him was that he could add to your story and make valuable contributions. This was of course, before Bandit Queen happened. A trip or two was made to Jamnagar to select the material, fabric, colour based on the story line and Kutchins were assigned to do the tailoring.

 

Keep track of the story through the concluding edition which will appear in tomorrow’s segment of Mr.Sanyal’s narrative. | By Sujit Sanyal, Ad veteran

 

 

The guest article writer this week is ad veteran Sujit Sanyal. In his early days  in Calcutta he was with the theatre group which was the flavour of the day in the early seventies. But by late seventies he had stepped into the world of advertising and moved to Delhi. Calcutta has nurtured and shaped some of the finest minds in advertising, Sujit Sanyal is one of them. He has worked with Clarion Advertising and recently launched his book ‘Life In a Rectangle’ which takes us down memory lane and depicts the highs and lows of his days with the agency. His need to download memories is fulfilled by sitting in front of his laptop when words come naturally to him. A multifaceted person Sujit Sanyal is an adman, journalist, poet, artist, novelist and actor all rolled into one which has made him emerge an enriched human being.