2 top ad agencies offered me a job without even taking a copy test-Rahul Bose
7:55 AM
As told to Roshmila Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; May 21, 2018)
After graduating in commerce from Mumbai’s Sydenham College, I immediately got admission to an MBA course in the US. But they suggested I get some work experience first so I joined Mahindra & Mahindra’s Jeep division and discovered that I enjoyed advertising far more than marketing. I wanted to be a copy writer so I dashed off a mock campaign for the CJ-340 jeep which went something like ‘Feels like a car, rides like a buggy and looks like a dream’. I mailed it off to three top ad agencies, Trikaya Grey, Rediffusion Y & R and Enterprise and the first two offered me a job without even taking a copy test. Without waiting for the third interview, I took up the Rediffusion job. I was 22 and worked at the agency for five years.
I joined as a trainee but quickly graduated to writing copy. The first campaign was for a shaving cream which was along the lines, “In the stillness of the morning, everything waits, the water waits, the razor quivers…” V Shantakumar was the creative director, Nitin Beri the art director and it was filmed by Mahesh Mathai. I went on to do several other campaigns for everything, from magazines and soft drinks to hotels and corporate ads. A corporate ad I worked on as a freelancer for a city eveninger bagged me the prestigious CAG (Communication Arts Guild).
At 25, I was offered English, August, Dev Benegal’s directorial debut based on Upamanyu Chatterjee novel by the same name. The agency gave me two months off to go and shoot the film after two decades in theatre. I had been on stage since I was six and in the second standard, I played Tom in a play titled Tom, The Piper’s Son, and it was like my home, I belonged there, theatre made me feel strong, confident and loved. I’d done professional theatre for four years in Mumbai, working in Rahul D’Cunha’s Are There Tigers in the Congo? and Prithvi Theatre’s The Sandbox among others. I was excited about the film offer too but I quickly realised that facing the movie camera was a completely different ball game. There is no immediate feedback from the audience and after a while I began to rely on my instincts. If your mind and heart is clean and uncluttered, your instincts almost never let you down.
After English, August I returned to advertising. I enjoyed the freedom the job gave me. I worked from 10 am to midnight most days, but timings were flexible and I could go hop off to the gym in the afternoon and come to the office in shorts. The money was really good and there was no hierarchy. My bosses, Arun Nanda and Ajit Balakrishnan, were Arun and Ajit to me, and even Shantakumar was Shanta.
I must have been not too shabby at my job because I was promoted to creative director at the age of 26. That was a big high though I was unhappy about going out for dinner and drinks with clients after office hours and told my bosses I wasn’t going to do it. They respected my decision. It also upset me that for the first time in my life, I had no time for theatre for a year.
Meanwhile, English, August which was in post-production for over a year, finally released in 1994 and was critically acclaimed. It was the first indie film to break the stranglehold of mainstrem Hindi cinema. Many in ad circles dabbled in theatre, but no one had played the lead in a feature film. Amidst all the congratulations, I surprised everyone by quitting advertising to become a full-time actor. My dad was aghast, “What will happen now?” he wondered. I told him I had two-months salary and Ajit amd Arun had assured me their doors were always open to me. If things didn’t work out, I could always go back. But I didn’t have to.
I was offered a daily soap, A Mouthful Of Sky, which gave me a monthly income for a year. Fiction television is not my medium but the soap paid me as much as I got as a creative director and gave me my financial independence. Then, Bombay Boys happened, and after that one film followed the other.
Over the years, I’ve occasionally brainstormed with friends on campaigns and even acted in a few commercials and endorsements. My experience as creative director has also helped me position my movies correctly, design the logo and brochures of my foundation, come up with innovative promotion ideas for films like Poorna which had a limited budget to play upon a popular phrase, you can take a person out of advertising but you can never take advertising out of a person.
After graduating in commerce from Mumbai’s Sydenham College, I immediately got admission to an MBA course in the US. But they suggested I get some work experience first so I joined Mahindra & Mahindra’s Jeep division and discovered that I enjoyed advertising far more than marketing. I wanted to be a copy writer so I dashed off a mock campaign for the CJ-340 jeep which went something like ‘Feels like a car, rides like a buggy and looks like a dream’. I mailed it off to three top ad agencies, Trikaya Grey, Rediffusion Y & R and Enterprise and the first two offered me a job without even taking a copy test. Without waiting for the third interview, I took up the Rediffusion job. I was 22 and worked at the agency for five years.
I joined as a trainee but quickly graduated to writing copy. The first campaign was for a shaving cream which was along the lines, “In the stillness of the morning, everything waits, the water waits, the razor quivers…” V Shantakumar was the creative director, Nitin Beri the art director and it was filmed by Mahesh Mathai. I went on to do several other campaigns for everything, from magazines and soft drinks to hotels and corporate ads. A corporate ad I worked on as a freelancer for a city eveninger bagged me the prestigious CAG (Communication Arts Guild).
At 25, I was offered English, August, Dev Benegal’s directorial debut based on Upamanyu Chatterjee novel by the same name. The agency gave me two months off to go and shoot the film after two decades in theatre. I had been on stage since I was six and in the second standard, I played Tom in a play titled Tom, The Piper’s Son, and it was like my home, I belonged there, theatre made me feel strong, confident and loved. I’d done professional theatre for four years in Mumbai, working in Rahul D’Cunha’s Are There Tigers in the Congo? and Prithvi Theatre’s The Sandbox among others. I was excited about the film offer too but I quickly realised that facing the movie camera was a completely different ball game. There is no immediate feedback from the audience and after a while I began to rely on my instincts. If your mind and heart is clean and uncluttered, your instincts almost never let you down.
After English, August I returned to advertising. I enjoyed the freedom the job gave me. I worked from 10 am to midnight most days, but timings were flexible and I could go hop off to the gym in the afternoon and come to the office in shorts. The money was really good and there was no hierarchy. My bosses, Arun Nanda and Ajit Balakrishnan, were Arun and Ajit to me, and even Shantakumar was Shanta.
I must have been not too shabby at my job because I was promoted to creative director at the age of 26. That was a big high though I was unhappy about going out for dinner and drinks with clients after office hours and told my bosses I wasn’t going to do it. They respected my decision. It also upset me that for the first time in my life, I had no time for theatre for a year.
Meanwhile, English, August which was in post-production for over a year, finally released in 1994 and was critically acclaimed. It was the first indie film to break the stranglehold of mainstrem Hindi cinema. Many in ad circles dabbled in theatre, but no one had played the lead in a feature film. Amidst all the congratulations, I surprised everyone by quitting advertising to become a full-time actor. My dad was aghast, “What will happen now?” he wondered. I told him I had two-months salary and Ajit amd Arun had assured me their doors were always open to me. If things didn’t work out, I could always go back. But I didn’t have to.
I was offered a daily soap, A Mouthful Of Sky, which gave me a monthly income for a year. Fiction television is not my medium but the soap paid me as much as I got as a creative director and gave me my financial independence. Then, Bombay Boys happened, and after that one film followed the other.
Over the years, I’ve occasionally brainstormed with friends on campaigns and even acted in a few commercials and endorsements. My experience as creative director has also helped me position my movies correctly, design the logo and brochures of my foundation, come up with innovative promotion ideas for films like Poorna which had a limited budget to play upon a popular phrase, you can take a person out of advertising but you can never take advertising out of a person.
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