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Brand Prahlad

It's time for the ad world to wake up to social responsibility, says Prahlad Kakkar

PHOTO: SHAJU JOHN

MAN OF MANY HATS Prahlad Kakkar

Ads have a way of making a lasting impact, the way few other elements of mass media can. Sometimes touching, sometimes funny, usually smart and always concise, some of them remain with us through a lifetime, though the person behind the ad may remain faceless. Not so adman Prahlad Kakkar. Perhaps it's emblematic that the man who wears many hats in the end wears just one. Because the filmmaker, scuba diver, restaurateur and AIDS counsellor reiterates his different kinds of work are not actually different trades, as they stem from the same source.

"Always remember, whatever I do is either an extension of a hobby, something I've grown up with or a passion."

Some would call it the secret of his success. Kakkar, with all his down-to-earth friendliness, can't escape the label of success now. To be asked to play yourself in a film has got to be the ultimate proof of celebrity. And that is what he does in the just released Corporate.

How was it to be at the receiving end of the megaphone? Kakkar laughs his contagious laugh. "Well, the director called me up one day and said `Would you like to play yourself?' I said don't be stupid, I'm not getting in front of the camera."

The Corporate act

What clinched the deal was the assurance that he would "get to kiss Bipasha Basu." And Kakkar's "half-a-second" scene was in, though in his self-deprecatory manner, he feels Corporate director Madhur Bhandarkar put his reputation at risk"!

Kakkar, though, has moved on to greater projects. Last heard to be making his own full-length feature film, Bitter Rain, he says his team is actually working on two or three scripts.

Meanwhile, the man is opening his third restaurant. While his Sarson da Saga (based on the love story of "Sarson Kaur and Saga Singh") is doing good business, on the cards is Sarak Chhap, specialising in street food varieties. The restaurant business was a natural extension to the wonderful cooking that went on in the office, "where the food was free." When Genesis Films acquired a reputation for being the best restaurant in Mumbai because it was free, it was time to set up a business. He points out that his team works with him on all his multifarious projects — now cooking, now landing at the beaches, now making an ad film or two and for the past two years, counselling other companies on how best to absorb HIV-positive people in the workforce. Kakkar is convinced that the ad world should be trying to change society and has the power to do so though it is not doing enough at present.

"Actually it is the mouthpiece of the establishment," says the man who refuses to make ads for fairness creams as they "are retrogressive and reinforce an opinion that is obsolete."

ANJANA RAJAN

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