UNICEF’s Pulse Polio, ‘Do Boond Zindagi Ke’ (2002): Do Boond, One Brilliant Idea

I wrote the line ‘Do Boond Zindagi Ki’ for the Pulse Polio campaign. But the real genius of the campaign, the central idea, came from Piyush Pandey. And that idea was showing Amitabh Bachchan angry with people who had not immunized their children against polio. Only Bachchan could get away with berating an entire nation. Only he commanded that kind of respect and love. And only Piyush could have come up with that idea. Stunning in its simplicity, understanding of Indian culture and impact.

One day, I read a criticism of it on social media. Some random guy had written: “What’s so special about this campaign? Just another celebrity talking to the camera.” I was furious and wanted to reply with a sarcastic tirade. I sent Piyush a screenshot of the tweet and told him that I was going to write a riposte. Piyush smiled and said, “Tere paas kaagaz-kalam hai?” I said yes, excited that he would give me some points to write.

“Likh Dhenchu, Dhenchu, Dhenchu!’”said Piyush. (The Hindi equivalent of ‘Hee-Haw’, a donkey’s call) “Matlab?” I asked, puzzled.

“Is gadhe ko aur kya samajh mein aayega?” said Piyush with a laugh. What a lesson.

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Gujarat Tourism, ‘Khushboo Gujarat Ki’ (2010): Two Giants, One Simple Act

The Gujarat campaign started off with one film, but it went on for nearly five or six years. During filming, Piyush and I would eat, sleep, discuss and shoot side by side, often with Amitabh Bachchan, since he was part of this campaign.

Piyush was the country’s top creative mind, but he was open to everyone — be it a client, a director or someone from the crew. He would listen to, and manoeuvre ideas as long as the core remained intact. My production manager, Kumar Thakur, became his best friend because they both came from the heartland.

Once we had a 6 am shoot call time. The previous day we had an early pack-up, so we were partying a little and it got late. Next morning, Piyush knocked on my door at 6 am, saying, “He [Amitabh Bachchan] has reached the location, nobody’s there!” We ran to Kumar who scurried out barely dressed, and Piyush told him, “Arre pant toh pehno!”

Piyush and I then ran to see Mr Bachchan in the distance, picking up all the garbage people had left from the previous evening. We started apologizing, after which Piyush said, “Main bhi aapke saath saaf karta hoon,” and joined him in the clean-up as we readied for shoot. The visual of him and Piyush cleaning up after everyone will remain etched forever in my mind.