Spirit W | Hardwork, Resilience & Encouragement has made Sangeetha Narasimhan what she is today

One comes across many inspiring people in their life but very few who leaves an indelible impression on the mind as well as soul and motivates you throughout to achieve greater heights. The motivation may not necessarily be through their body of work, or an inspirational speech but just a few words spoken by them that touches your heart. One such fine lady I came across in a very short span of my career was Sangeeta Narasimhan.

Sangeeta Narasimhan is President (West) & Executive Creative Director at RK Swamy BBDO. She works as head of Creative and Management of the Mumbai operation of R K SWAMY BBDO and has been with the Agency for 23 years. She is a key member of the R K SWAMY HANSA Group national management structure and has played a huge role in enabling the Group to evolve on many fronts

She has been quietly working behind the scenes, creating iconic advertisements for major brands and companies. Her work covers a gamut of clients including Raymond - ‘The Complete Man', Visa Power, LIC -‘Why go anywhere else', Hawkins -‘The Joy of cooking', Mercedes Benz - ‘The future of the automobile',  Shriram Transport - ‘Musafir ho yaaron' and others. She has personally scripted and produced over 100 TVCs (original work - the number excludes work she has supervised or helped others with), a quantum of work that will be matched by just a few creative people in the industry. As for print campaigns, and other BTL work, it is too numerous to count.

Sangeetha holds an MBA, and is a Visharad (Master's degree equivalent) in Indian Classical Music, from Allahabad Music University that she received at the age of 14! She has also trained extensively in different forms of dance.

Our first meeting was in a seminar where she was talking about gender issues. She engrossed me in the world of her words. A champion of women rights, she strongly believes that women should not levy undue advantage of their rights. This is so apt, as we have forgotten today to associate rights with duties. She was extremely happy to meet me after the seminar and obliged me by agreeing to answer my questions for a feature and without knowing my body of work was kind enough to motivate me with words, ‘Keep up your good work’.

Time and again she has been patient with me and has always instantaneously agreed for an interview. This time she allowed me to interview her and take her inspirational story to many young minds.

Adgully (AG): How would you describe your journey in the professional world?

Sangeetha Narasimhan (SN): The journey has been all about hard work, relentless deadlines, demanding clients and most important, encouraging people to focus on each other’s strengths as opposed to weaknesses. 

AG: What kind of challenges did you face in the initial years? How difficult was it to get a breakthrough in the men's world?

SN: I joined the agency in Mumbai when it was a fledgling operation. The biggest challenge I faced was the bias against the agency – seen as ‘Madrasi’. Hence as a Client servicing person, which is how I started, at one level I had to work very hard to overcome the bias at every step on the client side and the industry. At another I had to move creative people internally- to work with clients at middle management who were biased; to deliver work that helped move the sales needle; to work on brands that were not backed by large budgets. Later when I moved to Creative, the prejudice I faced inside and out from so called Creative types was a big challenge.

Quite frankly I have never been gender conscious and have focused on the task at hand. Further the work environment in the agency is so clean that there has been gender-neutrality or for that matter race/community/ colour neutrality, so any difficulties I faced were the ones relating to building business in a highly competitive and prejudiced world.

AG: How has the industry evolved in its outlook towards women in today's time? Do you think it is easier for women to make it through to the top now as compared to earlier?

SN: Looking at the work the industry produces the outlook towards women seems to be in two diametrically opposite poles.

At one end, women are used as sex objects increasingly – cars, cement, personal care, even cosmetics (done supposedly for women to be more bold without any understanding of consequences in a highly fragmented society) soft drinks, laptops (I have even heard men refer to women as  ‘laptops!’) Always everything is done so insidiously that if one takes objection one is dubbed old-fashioned.

At the other end increasingly we see confident housewives breaking the stereo types and making important choices for the family. Men caring about their women and family – Raymond textiles, Insurance work, banking, telecom, chocolates,

I believe that women can make it to the top in the corporate world as can be seen in the private and public sectors. Where it is more difficult is in law/courts & the police – we don’t find that many women judges/solicitor generals or police officers. In the case of politics too it is difficult for women if you genuinely want to do something. But I suppose it is equally difficult for men.

There must have been many milestones in your career, one specific achievement that made you take pride in yourself.

There are many things that have been positive. Out of them, setting up of our office in Esplanade House Mumbai has been special. We took a heritage space that was totally run down. It was in such a horrendous state. We restored it to make it a place of pride for all of our people. It is aesthetic without being over-the-top. It is very comfortable and motivating for our people. It was a lot of work, but I think the results are worth it.

AG: Was there any moment that you felt dejected by the challenges that lay in front you?

SN: It is amazing how people continue with their prejudiced view of our agency and its work regardless of all our achievements and the outstanding work we have produced for our clients which has helped them grow their businesses and build their brands from strength to strength. This has been a challenge. This sometimes makes me feel, just a bit down.

AG: Is there anything specific you would want to do to bring about a change in the industry?

SN: Yes I believe this industry should stop obsessing over awards. As this means people losing their integrity at one level and at another level getting played by the networks to get higher incentives and bonuses for the senior management!

AG: You hold the VIsharad which is equivalent to masters in the field of music. Didn't music ever figure in the list of your prospective career?

SN: I had the option of becoming a pupil in the guru-shishya parampara with a famous musician when I finished my 10th standard. But having come from a middle-class background, I was daunted by the limited opportunities for artists in those days. Plus I was a book worm so I went into the ‘studying-working’ line. Fortunately for me I am in a field where my musical abilities have come somewhat handy and I am not completely out-of-touch. Having said that I do sometimes wonder what life would have been like if I’d chosen the other path.

AG: You have produced a prolific amount of work. What has been your personal favourite?

SN: Difficult to say - I liked the ‘VISA Power, Go get it’ commercial.

It was the start of my career in creative; another TVC I have been proud of is the LIC corporate TVC “Zindagi tumhari roshan rahe…’– it ran for 10 years! And then there’s the Raymond – ‘Aaj kal tere mere’ TVC.

AG: What gives you maximum pleasure after a hard day's work?

SN: I have recently begun to learn to play the piano and am thoroughly obsessed with it!

AG: What is your advice to the young girls who want to make it big in the advertising world?

To young women - First of all be serious about the profession.

Work hard consistently and be resilient. The results will come and will be positive. Do not worry about being a part of any peer group, on winning awards at any cost; on wearing garments that are with it; on following lifestyles which feel alien to your natural self and the list goes on and on.

Quick 5

An advertisement that you think you would have done justice to

The Garnier ad, in which a young woman in the skimpiest of shorts is pulling a stuck truck with her long, strong hair, in the middle of an old Chennai street.

A brand that you would want to endorse

A brand I endorse – the LIC.

Music currently playing on your Ipod

I don’t use an Ipod… but the music I listen to goes from Beatles, Jet throttle, Pink Floyd, Eagles, Eric Clapton to T M Krishna &Maharajapuram Santhanam Karnatic classical music & Hariprasad Churasiya, Jasrajji, Laxmi Sankar & Sanjeev Abhyankar in Hindustani classical music. A new obsession is Western classical performances under different conductors. And then there are old, hindi film songs of Rafi, Kishore, Hemant Kumar and the Indian bands – Indian Ocean; Shakti; Kosmic chants.

A gadget you sinfully want to indulge in

None – Want a few musical instruments though!

Three things you want to do before the world ends

Play a full piano concerto and get my teacher’s approval; set up a children’s home which is run honestly and with love; learn Sanskrit and read the vedas and puranas myself. I By Rabab Rupawala [rabab(at)adgully.com]