Rajesh Ramaswamy on Kya Khoob Lagti Ho & Breaking Stereotypes in Beauty Industry

The beauty and fashion space is a difficult one to come up with something that sounds true and at the same time refreshing. Something that can be owned by a brand like Nykaa which is a relatively young brand but at the same time at a stage where it enjoys a great deal of love and trust. We spent most of our time trying to crack that.

Kya Khoob lagti Ho is a timeless hit Hindi film song, how did you decide to peg the campaign around this?

In fact the last thing that we happened to hit upon was this line. It was more like a great summation of what we were trying to say. Somehow most brands of late seem to be tripping upon confidence, being comfortable with who you are etc. These things do reflect the new mindset but the challenge was to find something that is refreshing and at the same time relevant. We figured that beauty is also a very personal thing. There are a lot of emotions that ride on it. One of the anecdotes I had was that my mother has always wanted my daughter, who is now about 12, to dress up in traditional attire during festivals. Which is not something that my daughter would normally wear. But one day she just turned up in traditional clothes for a function which got her grandmother very emotional. It is beauty as seen by someone else and there are many layers to it. We wanted to dig deeper on such observations. Everyone had so many interesting situations that were drawn from their personal life. Which made it so diverse.

Kya khub lagti ho..just kind of capped this emotion perfectly. It’s not a tagline, but an expression... And it just fell into place.

All the four films have distinct story lines yet they cut across age and gender. Does this campaign attempt to dispel gender stereotypes in the domain of beauty which has been dominated by women and that too of a certain age group?

We never attempted to dispel stereotypes. That wasn’t the motivation. Since the idea is universal which makes it transcend age groups, genders, social strata etc. in a very natural manner. We had a lot more situations so that we could be convinced that this is extendable.

What according to you has changed over the years in terms of writing for the beauty space ?

There seems to be more emphasis now on the substance rather than just the form (the form has almost become staple and expected of the category). When you go down that path, you could end up championing a cause. Or take on a higher level point of view, societal commentary… nothing wrong with that. But it seemed not a natural fit for the brand, and also currently too dominated in the communication space. So we fell back on good old story telling but with refreshing insights and newer observations.

The product is not conscious of all the four ads, afterall, these are ad films, so does it not defeat the purpose?

The product might seem incidental in the screenplay, but it does play an integral role in the story. It is central to the plot. Looks play an important part in each of the situations. 'Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder’, this campaign somehow reinstates this age old adage- the focus is more on interpersonal relationships rather than the universality of beauty rather than its unattainability- are you speaking to a new age of consumers through these four ads?

We are speaking to a new mindset. Which mostly gets interpreted as young or Gen Z or whatever. But a new age consumer is someone who is forever evolving. He or she doesn’t belong to a specific age group. It is a new mindset that is reflected across generations. It’s got a mix of the old and the new. Like the relationships could be that of a bride and groom or a brother sister or mom daughter but the story explores a new dimension. Or a completely unexplored one like that of a teacher and her students.

All the four films sum up to interesting characters from various walks of life, how did you go about with the casting of this campaign?

That is Prasoon’s strength. We were looking for fresh faces with a certain sense of relatability. We all knew the people we were talking about. We wrote the scripts keeping certain people that we all knew in real life. Like from family and friends. So we never spoke with references of this person from this movie type of stuff. That kind of leads to organically finding the people who you find suitable to the role.

How did you onboard Prasoon Pandey? What according to you has been his master stroke in delivering this campaign?

Prasoon is a master storyteller. We were hoping that he likes these scripts. We were delighted that he really connected with them. That’s the first and foremost thing. Though he is an all-rounder, he has a special place for scripts that explore performance. He is one of those directors who draws from life and he gets the pitch so right. Like in the mother daughter film, the daughter could have easily come across as a spoilt brat or the mom as an old school typical mother. But the equation plays out like a very today’s relationship. He also explores the best from his cast. He draws it out from them, and keeps it so real. So it’s always refreshing.