Southern States
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Tamil Nadu-Chennai
Ad films with a touch of Kollywood
THE IDIOT box churns out ads worth millions everyday (a slight exaggeration) and rarely do we know `whodunit'. Suddenly, out of the blue, or should we say red, comes out a `gaana' scored by Harris Jeyaraj, directed by Rajiv Menon, starring `Illaya Thalapathy' Vijay and didn't they say Coke?
And hey! The complexion of ad films seems to have changed, thanks to showbiz and of course Kollywood. For once, we actually know `whodunit'!
This Diwali, it happened again. Vijay had a more high profile release for the 60 second ad film than for `Shahjahan'.
Rajiv Menon admittedly was `more nervous' making this ad film. He knew people would know he made it. So even when he got a ready made script from Coke, he sat over it, changed it completely and thrashed it out, over pasta.
Yes, the latest Coke ad was cooked in the kitchen, when Rajiv was making pasta for his client during the brainstorming session for the commercial, slated to be the second in the series featuring Vijay and gaana.
The job being a bit more challenging, especially because of a paradox of sorts. ``What is gaana afterall? Most gaana's base was love and the pain of not getting the girl. So our gaana had to retain a tinge of that. And Coke is about celebration. So we brought in a new format of a gaana outside a girl's hostel for someone feeling dejected saying Coke is your friend,'' explains Rajiv. ``The girl comes back at the end of the gaana, attracted. And there are new meanings as she says `Cho Chweet'. The story has changed. We wanted to bring in the treat feel, make it reachable and touchable. So we had more of the sun, more of the thirst with the gate as the barrier between the guy and the girl,'' the ad film-maker continues with his story.
``In the regional market, people cannot relate to the English that is spoken. That's why in the first story we had celebration in the rebel group. It was more like a feature film love story,'' Rajiv recollects his earlier ad film.
This time, the task was not just to show relationship of ``Vijay with the girl'', it was also to show ``Vijay as a friend and completely exploit the line''.
Ask Pushkar Chaudhuri, Area Marketing Manager of Coca Cola India about Coke's filmi involvement extending to in-film signages and promos like in `Yaadien' and he denies about having such plans here.
``We did a few promos with Badri and Priyamanavale and the idea was over,'' he says. But does that translate into sales? Coke believes it does. Besides, it does not cost the company anything. ``We just provide the signages when they ask us,'' says Pushkar.
Rajiv sees nothing wrong. ``Close your eyes and visualise Central Railway station. You see coolies wearing red, we have a mental image of army people there, a coffee shop somewhere. By keeping a signage there, you remain in the collective consciousness of people. There is a sense of comfort when people see Brooke Bond Tea there. It is a market place. Sometimes, signages are used for cueing. To suggest if it's small town or big town. For a producer, it's just a graphic. For a product, it's free publicity,'' he reasons. Bridging the mediums is probably the key. Rajiv sure seems to have achieved that. ``When an ad becomes entertaining, it becomes a part of psyche, it is a part of life. At the end of the day, it's just love stories and songs.''
By Sudhish Kamath
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