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Tag: R Balki

  • “I have nothing to lose in Bollywood”: Dhanush

    “I have nothing to lose in Bollywood”: Dhanush

    MUMBAI: R. Balki’s upcoming movie, Shamitabh will feature Amitabh Bachchan, Dhanush and Kamal Haasan’s daughter Akshara Haasan in lead roles.

     

    Dhanush, who has always played larger-than-life roles in his south flicks, has picked an unconventional role this time round. He feels motivated to experiment with roles in Bollywood as according to him, he has nothing to lose here.

     

    Last seen in the romantic drama Raanjhanaa opposite Sonam Kapoor, Dhanush said, “I have been trying to mix my characters as much as possible down south. There, one image is stuck, so I am restricted. Here in Bollywood, I have nothing to lose. So, I experiment with my characters. I am thankful to Balki who has given me this film.”

     

    Talking about his experience of working with Amitabh Bachchan, he said, “I don’t know if I have done enough work to deserve to be working with Mr Bachchan. God has blessed me with this film.”

     

    Akshara Haasan, who will be making her Bollywood debut with Shamitabh, added, “I really look up to Amitabh Bachchan and Dhanush but when we got on the sets, they made me feel very comfortable and made things easier for me.”

     

    Shamitabh, which also stars Rekha, is set to release on 6 February 2015.

     

  • Rekha and Amitabh Bachchan together in ‘Shamitabh’

    Rekha and Amitabh Bachchan together in ‘Shamitabh’

    MUMBAI: Award winning actor Dhanush, who made his debut in Bollywood with Raanjhana has just wrapped up the shooting of his second hindi film Shamitabh. The latest buzz is that, the film with Dhanush, Akshara Haasan and Amitabh Bachchan in lead will also star yesteryear sensation and an evergreen beauty Rekha.

     

    This was reveled by the Dhanush at the micro-blogging site Twitter, “LOOK whom I’m sharing screen space with, in Shamitabh. The one and only REKHA JI !!! #beautyforever,” he tweeted.

     

    Although it’s not clear whether they will have any scenes together, but Amitabh Bachchan and Rekha will be in a movie together after three decades.

     

    Shamitabh is an upcoming Hindi film scripted and directed by R Balki. The film is jointly produced by Sunil Lulla, R Balki, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, RK Damani, Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Sunil Manchanda and Dhanush under their respective production banners. Ilaiyaraaja has composed the soundtrack album and background score for the movie, while cinematography was handled by PC Sreeram

     

    Shamitabh is slated to release worldwide on 6 Feburary 2015.

     

    Last seen together in Silsila, Bachchan and Rekha have co-starred in many movies in the past including like Immaan Dharam (1977), Khoon Pasina (1977), Ganga Ki Saugandh (1978), Muqaddar Ka Sikander (1978), Mr Natwarlal (1979) and Suhaag (1979). She has also dubbed for two Bachchan-starrers; she was Sridevi’s voice in Aakhree Raasta (1986), and also dubbed for Soundarya and Jayasudha in EVV Satyanarayana’s Bollywood debut Sooryavansham (1999)

  • IAA Young Turks Forum hosts mentorship programme

    IAA Young Turks Forum hosts mentorship programme

    MUMBAI: The International Advertising Association (IAA) India Chapter played host to 25 leaders from across Indian industry to mentor 720 students at the first ever mentorship programme conducted under the aegis of the IAA Young Turks Forum.

     

    JSW Foundation chairperson Sangita Jindal launched the initiative on 19 September at the Bombay Stock Exchange’s International Convention Hall. Hailing the initiative, Jindal scored the importance of mentorship for young professionals.

     

    Earlier, an interactive session with the theme ‘Engaging with the Audience – Lessons from the Entertainment Industry’ was held with film-maker and Lowe Lintas chairman R Balki and Hollywood director and entertainer Stefan Haves. Theatre personality and author Anish Trivedi moderated the discussion.

     

    “There is no need to panic in the race to achieve things,” advised Balki. He also added, “Chill, it’ll happen. Don’t panic.”

     

    Highlighting the difference between a great juggler and a not-so-great juggler, Haves said, “A great juggler has dropped the balls more and made more mistakes in public.” Underscoring the need to not fight shy and be scared of going in front of people, Stefan said, doing public discourse feeds your own soul and that of people around you.”

     

    HBO south Asia was the presenting partner and Mahindra Special Services Group and NASSCOM were the knowledge partners of the IAA Young Turks Forum.

     

    IAA India Chapter president and IAA development Asia/Pacific region VP Srinivasan K Swamy said, “It was heartening to see so many industry leaders spare their precious time to come and mentor youngsters. I am delighted that so many individuals came forward to avail this opportunity. I am also thankful to both Balki and Stefan Haves for talking about their craft and offering true words of wisdom to the 1000-plus audience.”

     

    “We at HBO encourage and value youth engagement opportunities. Our channels have a significant youth connect and we are delighted to have partnered with IAA for this event which had a particularly interesting mix of an interactive session and mentorship programme,” said HBO south Asia MD Monica Tata.

     

    Mahindra Special Services Group marketing and public relations head Manish Advani added, “This was the third edition of the IAA Young Turks Forum and the fact that we had over a thousand youngsters present speaks a lot for the need to have such events.”

  • Sridevi, R Balki attend special screening for ‘Tapaal’

    Sridevi, R Balki attend special screening for ‘Tapaal’

    MUMBAI: A special screening of the award winning Marathi film Tapaal was organised recently and attended by Bollywood veterans like Sridevi, Boney Kapoor, director Imtiaz Ali, R Balki, Gauri Shinde and Niranjan Iyengar along with the cast and crew of the film.

     

    Appreciating the movie, Sridevi commented on a micro-blogging saying, “Just watched Marathi film ‘Tapal’. After a long time, was teary-eyed & emotionally choked. A must watch film for all.”

     

     “Laxman who also was the DoP of English Vinglish has done a commendable job in his first film as director & has packed some memorable moments in Tapal,” she added.

     

    Produced by Maitreya Mass Media and distributed by Pickle Entertainment, starring Nandu Madhav, Veena Jamkar, Milind Gunaji, Urmila Kanetkar and introducing Rohit Utekar, ‘Tapaal’ is all set to release on 26 September 2014.

     

    Tapaal is National & International Award winning Marathi film is set in a small village in the year 1977. It dwells with sympathy, concern and understanding on the bond between a little boy and a childless couple, and the social discrimination that they face.

     

    Even before its release, Laxman Utekar’s directorial debut is creating the right buzz. It has been critically acclaimed and has even won various accolades & awards at different film festivals for its sterling performances.

     

    Tapaal had its World Premiere at 18th Busan International Film Festival 2013, South Korea. It was also selected for the Indian Panorama Section at 44th IFFI (International Film festival 2013). Veena Jamkar bagged the best actress award at South Africa Film Festival. While Rohit Utekar won Best Child Actor Award, Prakash Holkar got the best lyricist award for his emotional composition ‘don disanchi sawali ‘ at the Maharashtra state film Awards.

  • Awards shouldn’t be taken very seriously: R Balki

    Awards shouldn’t be taken very seriously: R Balki

    MUMBAI: A leader is said to be the one who takes criticism in his stride and recognition is the last thing on his mind. We wonder if this is the driving thought of filmmaker and the chairman and chief creative officer of the ad agency Lowe Lintas & Partners R Balki?

     

    At the recently concluded Effie Awards conducted by the Advertising Club, Lowe Lintas walked away with the Agency of the Year honour as it bagged six gold, five silver and five bronze metals at the award ceremony. But the man, who is the driving force behind the stupendous work, proclaims that awards have never been in his priority list.

     

    In fact, most of the award shows of the advertising world have in any way not earned the required respect from the ad fraternity. While some have been shunned by most of the advertisers, some have not even been noticed. And some agencies have started their own award shows in order to bring in quality, for instance Lowe Lintas’ True Show or Ogilvy and Mathers’ Envies.

     

    Unlike the showbiz that’s full of award functions and celebrities gracing them as well, the award shows of the ad world are a low key affair attended by few and the number of participants being even fewer. And if in such a scenario, an award function manages to bring almost the entire fraternity together, it certainly means something. The 13th edition of Effie received a great response with almost every agency gracing the event.

     

    Lowe Lintas led the Effies leaving Ogilvy & Mather behind by 35 points, but the winning companies’ boss still stood by his belief that these functions are about partying and winning and losing doesn’t really matter. Indiantelevision.com probed Balki a little more to get an insight after his agency’s grand victory. Excerpts:

     

    On a personal level, you have been very vocal about what awards (don’t) mean to you! So what do you and your team have to say about winning the Effie?

     

    It is not about winning or losing but an evening of celebration. Effies have always been a constant part of the industry and we have always participated in it. It is a democratic agency where many feel that we should enter the agency and not others. So we enter in the shows where the team as a whole wants to participate.

     

    So if you win, you party with a lot of noise and if you don’t win then you should party without making a big noise. I think winning and losing is a part of the game and I don’t think awards should be taken so seriously. It’s not a death and life scenario at all; it is not that if one wins an award we are better or otherwise. I believe that it is the work that speaks and it could be good or bad without winning an award.

     

    Awards are not important but if the team feels that they want to participate in a certain award then they are free to do so. The team right now felt that it should participate in the Effies and so we went ahead and did. Tomorrow, if the team feels that it doesn’t want to participate in any award then we will not. It all depends on the team.

     

    Anything you would like to change about Indian advertising awards?

     

    One hundred per cent we would like to initiate an award where advertising should be just the way it is. It can neither be all about effectivity nor creativity. I think creativity is to make things better and sometimes it is not about making it better. Sometimes great ideas also don’t work. It cannot be just about effectiveness or blind creativity. There is a way to judge advertising ads. It is funny that an industry which creates so many ads and brands hasn’t been able to create an awesome award function for itself.

     

    Whom do you see as your main competitor especially during award shows?

     

    We don’t believe in award shows so we don’t believe in competitors. There are a lot of good agencies; O&M is a great agency which is during great work. There are few others as well but two agencies which are doing some great work are O&M and Lintas.

     

    Which would be the one award which you would like to hold in your hands? Since you have dabbled in films it can be a film award too?

     

    Since I don’t believe in them, I guess I will have to think hard before I say that. Right now, I don’t know if there’s an award that exists that really catches my fancy.

  • Lowe Lintas help spread love for LT Food

    Lowe Lintas help spread love for LT Food

    MUMBAI: LT Foods, a processor and exporter of packaged basmati rice and an upcoming FMCG company, has unveiled a new television commercial with actor Amitabh Bachchan for its flagship brand, Daawat.

     

    The new campaign is conceputalised by Lowe Lintas. The TVC titled “Pyaar ki Special Bhasha” brings to life the unique Indian way of expressing the love through the food we serve and eat and how this expression is incomplete without the finest basmati rice, Daawat.

     

    On the commercial, Lowe Lintas chief creative officer and chairman R Balki says, “Rice being at the centre of our food shoulders the responsibility of this expression of love. Daawat is the finest Basmati…the finest vehicle for this expression. Thus, the concept of ‘pyaar ki special bhasha’ and who better than Amitabh Bachchan to remind us about our expression of love through food which he does with his inimitable touch of humor.”

     

    In  a  fast growing and competitive category, where consumers are bombarded with messages on product superiority and attributes, brief was to develop a campaign  which  connects  to  the  heart  of  the  consumers and make them experience  the fulfillment that comes from cooking, serving and eating the finest basmati rice.

     

    Speaking about the TVC, LT Foods CEO Vivek Chandra says, “Daawat Basmati Rice understands the importance of rice in a family’s meal. Daawat Basmati has taken a step further and created a unique range of basmati rice for different dishes and cuisines. These grains are specifically picked, processed and packed, so that consumers can bring out the subtle wonder of each dish they prepare. This TVC strengthens the brand ethos by talking about the role a great dish plays in our life and how it helps us to express love.”

     

    The TVC is director by Shoojit Sircar and is a pan India campaign. “We will be taking leading TV channels across multiple genres like GECs, movie channels etc. to promote the campaign. A 360 approach will be developed to communicate to our target audience through relevant media vehicles that they are exposed to,” informs Chandra.

  • Lowe Lintas is now Bookmyshow’s creative agency

    Lowe Lintas is now Bookmyshow’s creative agency

    MUMBAI: Bookmyshow.com, an entertainment ticketing platform, has unveiled its new brand identity comprising of a refreshed company logo and tagline.
    After a multi-agency pitch held in Mumbai, the company has appointed Lowe Lintas as its creative partner to represent the company’s ideology of ensuring simplicity and accessibility in its offerings to customers.

    Speaking of the appointment, Lowe Lintas and Partners chairman and chief creative officer R Balki said, “There can be no greater joy in advertising than creating ideas for a product you use and love.  BookMyShow is one of the rare products where we can craft communication as consumers. Such a rare pleasure!”

    The account will be handled by the agency team in Mumbai, led by Lowe Lintas president Raj Gupta. Speaking of the partnership, he added, “BookMyShow is a transformational business model and we wish to make it a revolutionary brand too”

    Unveiling the company’s new identity, Bookmyshow.com founder and chief executive officer Ashish Hemrajani said, “Bookmyshow.com has evolved rapidly and has become synonymous with online entertainment ticketing in India. Keeping this in mind, we felt that the company identity no longer reflected what Bookmyshow as a company represents. This re-branding is our inflection point. Extensive research and many integral aspects were taken into consideration during the creation of this new identity. We believe the new identity perfectly captures our current standing and future aspirations as a company. We have also introduced a refreshed tagline, which perfectly captures and communicates the three key things we do for our customers – we book their show, time and seats. Simple and clear!”

    The new company identity has been designed by Lemon Designs and retains continuity from the older logo of an enclosed ‘my’ and the ‘book’ and ‘show’ on either side, with a transition from the 3D ball to a ‘ticket’. This transition and the retention of the older construction suggest progressive evolution of the company’s offerings. The new tagline‘My Show. My Time. My Seat’ represents consumer choice and convenience i.e. an assured seat, for a show and time of choice.

    In addition to the unveiling of its new identity, the company also announced its first ever ATL (Above the Line) marketing campaign. The marketing campaign mainly comprises of three mediums i.e. television, cinema and digital.

    Talking about the key objective behind the marketing campaign, Hemrajani added, “Currently, only 10 per cent of the Indian audience buys tickets online on an average. We see a great potential for market expansion, especially with the accelerated growth of the Indian film industry and emergence of smart phones in India. In fact, India ranks as the second highest country in the world in terms of digital buys through mobile. Even in the Tier II – Tier III cities, we have witnessed a phenomenal growth ranging from 150 – 600 per cent. Being market leaders in the online ticketing space, we are now looking at growing the online ticketing category with this marketing campaign. We are aiming to change consumer habits and persuade the 90 per cent offline ticket buyers to buy tickets online.”
    The creatives of the campaign have been conceptualised around movies and cinemas, with the advertisements centered on different genres of films such as suspense, tragedy and love triangle. The advertisements have been dubbed in five other languages namely Kannada, Bengali, Malayalam, Telugu and Tamil.

  • Lowe Lintas’ Balki shows how to do an advertising award

    Lowe Lintas’ Balki shows how to do an advertising award

    MUMBAI: Trust the man with the beard to do it differently. 10 years ago, the creative guru and the current Lowe Lintas chairman & chief creative officer R. Balki took a decision to put a full stop to his agency‘s participation in the advertising industry awards. But even he knows creatives have this innate desire to be patted on their backs for good creatives and advertising that they have slogged to create over zillions of cups of chai, ciggies and sometimes rum and coke or single malt scotch.

    Hence, to keep those in his agency in good cheer he created his own internal awards gig calling it ‘The True Show‘ way back in 2003. And the agency has been putting it together randomly once every few years; whenever it thinks the time is right. The first was in 2003, the next in 2005, the third in 2008 and finally the last one which was held last night at the Shangri La Hotel in Central Mumbai.

    At the fourth True Show, Balki made an appearance with his lovely and talented wife Gauri Shinde accompanying him as he entered the venue. And he quickly got down to the business for the evening.

    R Balki chairman and CCO of Lowe Lintas strikes a pose

    He was pretty blunt when he spoke: “I don‘t give a damn for awards shows. Awards are just an excuse to drink and have fun and they change no one‘s lives. True Show is not about awarding our self it‘s about awarding good work.”

    And indeed it was time to down a pint or two. Instead of the usual trophies, Balki handed out bottles of wine to each of the winners onstage. He even went as far as forcing them to down a few shots before letting them go. Post their pumping their fists in the air, they returned their bottles back, for each to be handed over to the next winner.

    Balki obviously was in good spirits and hence it was strange to see some vets like DDB Mudra chairman & CCO Sonal Dabral shying away from receiving their bottle of wine. Ditto with ‘Vicky Donor‘ director Shoojit Sircar, who was recognised for his film for Gujarat Tourism with Amitabh Bachchan. Both had to be pushed by their former colleagues on to the stage. They were not from Lowe, but from other agencies, and there only to have a good time.

    Prasoon Joshi and R Balki – ‘The True Showmen‘

    Of course, old friends like Bang-Bang Films‘ Roopak Saluja, BBDO India‘s Josy Paul, Lodestar‘s Shashi Sinha, Axis Bank‘s Shikha Sharma, Leo Burnett‘s K.V. Sridhar, McCann Erickson‘s Prasoon Joshi, O&M‘s Madhukar Sabnavis and Abhijit Avasthi, Taproot‘s Agnello Dias, Draft FCBUka‘s KC Chakravarthy ‘Chax‘ were all there to take part in the party. And clients like Rajiv Bajaj of Bajaj Auto, HUL‘s Nitin Paranjpe, among others.

    Rajeev Bajaj and K V Sridhar in conversation

    Leo Burnett India CCO K.V. Sridhar was full of praise for Balki‘s effort. Speaking to indiantelevision.com he said: “True Show is true to the personality of Lintas and Balki. At the end of the day, it is all about celebrating good work. Unless you care about the work done by you the world will not.”

    Way to go Balki!

    Here‘s a list of those who got a chance to take home a bottle wine and were forced to down shots by Balki:-

     

    True Craft Awards
    Voice – Ad : Coke (Cricket ki Khushi) – Dev
    Design – Ad: Fastrack – Akash Lyod & Karl
    Cinematography – Ad: Lifebuoy – Tapan

    Lyrics – Ad: Idea Honey Bunny campaign – Amitabh Bhattacharya/Subodh Menon/Ashwin Varkey  
    Music – Ad: Idea Honey Bunny campaign – Amit Trivedi
    True Show Talent Anupam & Urfee
    True Show Best Editor Ad: Axis Bank – Shekhar
    Work that we truly envy Ogilvy and Mather – The Hindu
    Work that we truly envy for craft

    Shoojit Sircar for directing the TVCs for Gujarat Tourism
    Work that we truly envy Ad: Big Bazaar – Mudra
    True Simplicity Ad: Havells Idli – Sriram Iyer & Team
    True Activation Idea Ad: Tata Tea Jaago re campaign, Chotti Shuruvat
    Best Continuing campaign

    Ad: Surf Excel
    True Brand Portfolio

    Ad: Tanishq
    Blockbuster of the year Ad: Idea Honey Bunny campaign
    True Idea
    Bronze – Ad: ET Half Knowledge campaign

    Silver 01 – Ad: ICICI Prudential (Bandhe Ache Hai)

    Silver 02 – Ad: Havells Fans (Sriram & Team)

    Gold – Ad: Idea Exchange (Telephone Exchange campaign – Himanshu & Team)
    Truly Special Award Ad: Lifebuoy Gondappa

  • Lifebuoy rolls out ‘Saving Lives’ campaign

    MUMBAI: Lifebuoy has announced the launch of a campaign with a three-minute film that seeks to inspire action from viewers to pledge support for Lifebuoy’s hand washing programs on the ground.

    According to the brand, the objective of the campaign is not to sell a product, but share a lofty brand purpose. Also, the brand wants to tap the “technology-savvy” audience by inspiring them to spread this message of saving lives. The campaign aims to create an act that will make a real difference.

    Lowe Lintas chairman and chief creative officer R. Balki said, “A small act like washing hands with Lifebuoy can save a child‘s life. This message needs to reach far and wide. So, we created this campaign that can open one‘s mind to this amazing message. A campaign that moves people to the extent that they care to share it with others”.

    Lifebuoy global vice president Samir Singh said, “Lifebuoy’s goal is to change the hand-washing behaviours of a billion people by 2015 in order to help save lives and reduce disease. On top of the work we have been doing on ground for the last 10 years, we needed people to support our cause in huge numbers to reach our goal. We wanted to tell the world the Lifebuoy story in a deeply emotional way. Our brief to Lowe was to translate the statistic of “2 million children still die in the world before the age of 5 due to preventable infections like diarrhoea and pneumonia” into something real, personal and powerful. And through this film, they have done just that.”

    “We wanted this ad to evoke a meaningful response towards the initiative and not to say ‘what a beautiful ad’. It‘s a real, true and honest programme and the work should embody that. Judging from the responses we have from people and industry alike, I think we‘ve managed to achieve this,” Lowe Lintas NCD Amer Jaleel added.

  • Havells launches ‘Bijlibaba’ TVC

    MUMBAI: Havells has launched a new television commercial titled ‘Bijlibaba‘ which is created by Lowe Lintas.

    The new commercial communicates the energy-saving message in an engaging and thought provoking manner.

    The film revolves around a person who is struck by lightning and thereby acquires a magical power of creating electricity. He can power every electrical gadget that comes his way and by doing so he is bringing electricity to the lives of the common people. He acquires a following and all that his followers require is a gesture from him to power their appliances. In the end the film reminds the viewers that there is no such person in their life and hence they still need to save electricity. And Havells products help them in doing that.

    The television campaign will be extended to print, internet, digital and in-shop POSM.

    Directed by R.Balki, the ad film is produced by Lintas Productions.

    The creatives of the ad film are credited to Amer Jaleel, Shriram Iyer and Mohit Arora.