MUMBAI: Diwan Arun Nanda, one of Indian advertising’s towering figures and co-founder of the agency Rediffusion, passed away this week in Mumbai. He was 76.
Born in 1948, Nanda cut his teeth at Hindustan Lever after graduating as a gold medallist from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. His early work included the lightning-bolt logo for Rin detergent, which seared itself into household memory.
In 1973, with Ajit Balakrishnan and Mohammed Khan, he set up Rediffusion, thumbing his nose at the global giants then ruling the market. A coup soon came with Eveready’s transistor-battery campaign—“The chosen one”—that announced the firm’s creative muscle.
Over the next decades Nanda steered Rediffusion into the premier league, wooing clients from telecoms to fast-moving consumer goods. His fame rested not just on catchy slogans but on fierce integrity. When a magazine failed to deliver on claims hyped in its ads, he promptly gave up the account, unwilling to mislead.
Nanda’s reach went well beyond Madison Avenue. He advised prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in the 1980s, forged a tie-up with Young & Rubicam, and sat on the boards of Air India, Eveready, Kingfisher Airlines and Yes Bank. Colleagues remember him as a demanding mentor who valued clarity and principles as much as creativity.
“Rediffusion’s journey was a dream run,” he once said. His death marks the close of an era in Indian advertising—an era of audacity, pride in home-grown talent, and the rare refusal to compromise.
