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Tag: Ivan Arthur

  • RIP Mike Khanna: Ad man bids adieu forever

    RIP Mike Khanna: Ad man bids adieu forever

    MUMBAI: Indian ad fraternity’s father figure Mahinder K. Khanna familiar as Mike Khanna, who captained the titanic transition of Hindustan Thomson Associates (HTA) into J Walter Thomson (JWT) breathed his last on 7 June, 2015 at the age 76. Khanna had been unwell for some time.

     

    The entire business fraternity will speak highly about the numbers that he managed to secured as a leader of HTA first in Delhi and then in Mumbai but his achievements are way beyond those numbers. 

     

    Defining Khanna’s persona, HTA former national creative director Ivan Arthur writes, “And those who do not know him will have visions of a man like some others with similar achievements, men who draw attention to their success with big flourishes of the corporate wand and the abracadabra of individual style. With Mike there were no flourishes; no conjurer’s patter, no abracadabra showmanship. He almost seemed like a novice with a pack of cards, slowly dealing them out, stopping to spit-wet his fingers when suddenly you would notice: he has dealt you an ace. And then another and another. You looked in awe. And there he was, unimpressed with his own magic, intent on just dealing you those aces.”

     

    Arthur further adds in his blog, “A creative director will tell you how, on the occasion of the global CEO’s visit, her presentation was delayed by an hour, and how Mike went up to her, put his hand on her shoulder and said, Relax. This is not the end of the world. I could have kissed him then, she said. But I went about getting the job done. An office manager narrates how on his wife’s birthday, he had invited Mike home for dinner, at which he demonstrated the five-finger-and-palm bhangra clap.”

     

    In 2005 Khanna decided to hang up his professional boots and was replaced by Colvyn Harris as JWT India’s CEO. In January 2015, following Harris’ appointment as executive director for global growth and client development Tarun Rai was handed over the post of CEO of J. Walter Thompson South Asia.

     

    Under Khanna’s leadership, HTA represented some of India’s biggest brands like Hero, Pepsi, several Unilever brands, and Air India.

     

    “The freedom to try and fail. A strong sense of self-worth, fairness, integrity, leadership, challenge, A sense of fun. Aces that they hold close to their chest. Aces that have led them to where they are today. Many are now happily retired and a good number are CEOs, chairmen of companies and leaders in their fields. They are all of them echoing one line, I am what I am today because of Mike,” concludes Arthur.

     

    We at Indiantelevision.com deeply mourn the passing away of this maverick ad man. RIP Mike Khanna (1939 – 2015).

     

  • Sudhir Deokar’s visualisation was photographically perfect: Ivan Arthur

    Sudhir Deokar’s visualisation was photographically perfect: Ivan Arthur

    MUMBAI: It was in the early 60s, I was a cub writer then, Sudhir a young tiger. Every day, I watched him roar, bold and resonant on his easel. And I cowered behind my table wondering what I was doing in a place like this? Tentatively, I handed him a line for an Esso advertisement, expecting a growl of disapproval. He looked at it for a moment and with the salivary articulation of well-chewed paan, he said: “Tomorrow.” The next morning I glanced at his easel and grew a hundred feet tall. There was my line on his layout, for sure, but barely recognisable even to me.  Sudhir had made it resonate beyond the thesaurus.

     

    He did this always. He took lines and gave them roundness, movement, dimension, resulting in halos for copywriters, account directors, clients and their brands. He freed the Air-India Maharaja from the croquill’s ruthless line and caressed him with that soft roundness. He poured sex appeal into Haryana Breweries’ beer barrels, played mid-wife to both DCM and Wipro Data Products and placed Hamdard on the medical pedestal it deserved. Name any Thompson brand from the early sixties to the Millenium year; Sudhir has gilded it with his brush. He retired as creative chief of the Mumbai office of Hindustan Thompson Associates (HTA), now JWT.

    Sudhir poured sex appeal into Haryana Breweries’ beer barrels

    He worked his magic with 6-B pencil, croquill, rotring, Indian ink, water-colours and his sable hair wand; conjuring up caricatures, cartoons, stylised drawings and life-like water colours; his 20-minute layouts often used as artwork. Artwork became works of art, clients having them framed and put up in their offices. His visualisation of human situations or tabletop was photographically perfect. When the final picture was taken in the studio, you might not be able to tell the difference between the photographed picture and the 20-minute wash drawing. Mitter Bedi, Obi, Salian and so many others would marvel at the lens that was Sudhir’s eye.

     

    For close to three decades he gave my work the visual sanctification of his brush, and I feel blessed. I know that many who came before and after me will echo my feelings. He had the bigness and breadth to work with most anyone – from trainee to guru. Many of his trainees are gurus now. I look with awe today at a generation that thrives on the digital evacuation of ideas, but I still thrill to the memory of those visual insights shaped by hand and eye by artists like Sudhir. He was loved by all – from the most cussed of executives to the most difficult of clients.

    Freed the Air India Maharaja from the croquills ruthless line and caressed him with that soft roundness

    Besides being my creative soul mate, Sudhir became a friend of the family. His passing is a deep gash that my soul will have to bear for ever.

     

    (Ivan Arthur is the former creative director of JWT, India. He can be contacted at Ivan.arthur@gmail.com)