Tributes have been pouring in for the late great adman Piyush Pandey, who passed away on Thursday. It was “his courage that stood out for me,” said celebrity photographer and producer Atul Kasbekar. “In the early part of my career, I was a ‘nobody’; then, Pandey was senior creative director at Ogilvy. He gave me my most significant breaks that stood me in good stead throughout,” recalled Kasbekar. The photographer analysed, “It takes courage to give a chance to a nobody. At that time, you are usually going around with your portfolio, showing your work to people. Often, people are at first sceptical whether the work you show them has been done by you or somebody else. It needs one person to be able to look you in the eye and say: You can pull it off. For me, Piyush Pandey was that influential hand on my back, saying, bachche ko chance do. I have always been deeply grateful for that chance.” Kasbekar said, looking at the larger picture, “Pandey redefined advertising. Till that time, advertising had been very English; one did not know if it really percolated down to all. Then, he brought in a local lens and lingo. That was very effective. I am a great student of history, and when people say this one is better than that one, I always say, judge people in the time that they were in. If you can transcend that, if your work can do that, then you are truly a legend. Today, if you see the Cadbury ad, it still puts a smile on your face. The Fevicol ad of villagers going fishing does not need words and will resonate even in Brazil. That is the meaning of transcending time. In these days, when ‘legend’ is loosely used, here, the label ‘label’ sticks to Piyush Pandey just like Fevicol.”
Many parts
Sam Balsara, chairman, Madison World, said, “At the outset, I must say that I was totally shocked at the news of Piyush Pandey’s passing. I was unaware that he was ailing or not doing too well. He was so multifaceted. Do you know he started as a tea planter?” asked Balsara with a laugh. The tea leaves had obviously predicted quite a different future for Pandey, who moved to advertising eventually. “He was such an outstanding success, carrying the Indian flag through the years,” said Balsara. The chairman explained, “By carrying the Indian flag, I mean, he was the first to teach us or tell us that advertising need not be written in a foreign language. He showed us that the best of advertising needs to have Indian stories, Indian mythology, and it can speak the language of what we see around us. He was also generous with his time, and that made him very popular with clients. Overall, an adman par excellence and a great human being.
Kartik Mani, founder and chief creative officer (CCO) of the advertising agency Merry Men; (right) Photographer Atul Kasbekar is grateful for the breaks
Cheerleader
There was so much more to Piyush Pandey than advertising, and Shibani Gharat, a marathoner, knows that better than most. Gharat, a media professional, said, “I first met Piyush almost 14 years ago, and even then, it wasn’t his towering stature in advertising that overwhelmed me; it was his warmth. What connected us went beyond our shared love for this beautiful industry was sport. He, a former Ranji Trophy player; me, someone shaped by competitive martial arts and, later, long-distance running. That shared discipline, that shared hunger, built a bond that grew stronger with time. He was a man of his word — and by that, I do not mean just advertising words. In January 2014, at the Effie Awards. I told him I was running my second Mumbai Marathon that Sunday. He smiled and said, ‘I’ll come to cheer you’. I laughed it off, thinking it was one of those things people say. But two days later, there he was at Shivaji Park, 7:30 am sharp, waving as I ran by. I stopped, surprised. He said, ‘I saw you running on TV and thought I’d come to run a hundred meters with my moholla neighbour’. He didn’t stop at a hundred. He ran with me all the way till the end of Shivaji Park. It was humbling. Overwhelming. Purely Piyush.”
The humility
It is memory time for Kartik Mani, founder and chief creative officer (CCO) of the advertising agency Merry Men. Kartik said, “Having worked in Ogilvy, I had a few opportunities to interact with Piyush, at work and outside. What made a deep impact on me as a young creative person at that time was how lightly he wore his ‘crown’. He was literally at the top of his game at that point in time, having made some of the most iconic ads, and yet when you spoke to him, there was no pretentiousness or airs. He took his work seriously, but never himself or his role. In fact, even his philosophical advice was always fun and full of cricketing metaphors. Like, you can’t hit every ball for a six – was his advice when you tried too hard to come up with a winner of an idea for a client, but it wasn’t happening.” Kartik goes on to recount an incident a few years back, which showed how Piyush remained unchanged over the years.
“He was turning 60, and at Merry Men, we decided to thank him for his incredible contributions to Indian advertising through some sweet tongue-in-cheek posts. The final post in the series, which was a wish, said, ‘Thank you, Piyush. Happy Birthday. Kuch Meetha ho jaaye.’ Somehow these posts managed to reach him, and he responded saying thank you for the gesture, and even recorded a video message on my request, so that my team could hear it. That was typically ‘Piyush Pandey’, generous and always grounded. This truly feels like the end of an era because they don’t make people like him anymore.”
70
Age of Piyush Pandey
