Tanishq sells the sale proposition

It's the season of sales and discounts. But how can a brand say the same thing - about reduced prices - without being repetitive or desperate? Enter Tanishq, with its new campaign promoting a 20 per cent discount on all diamond jewellery. The 45-second TV campaign is a fresh take on the whole concept of 'on-sale items'.

The film opens with a father walking into his daughter's room to ask her a question. He asks her if it is okay to gift a friend something that has been bought on sale. The daughter, reading a book and scooping up some food from a bowl, replies that it should be fine, because it is, after all, the thought that counts. The father sits next to her, shares her bowl of food and then meekly hands her a box from Tanishq. In the box is a pair of diamond earrings - bought during the sale season. The film ends with the voiceover declaring that 'up to 20 per cent off on diamonds, lekin pyaar mein koi kami nahi' (but there is no less love).

Lowe had wanted to collaborate with Bangladesh based director Piplu R Khan ever since his film on Coca Cola football. The time was ripe and knowing Khan's style of working, the agency approached Cinerio films and Khan for the campaign. "The story is about a relationship between the father and his daughter, over the promotion of the sale. At the same time, we wanted to create a universal look. It was very important that everyone at each part of India could relate to the film," explains Khan.

The film takes exactly 45 seconds to connote not just the reduced prices now on offer, but shows the state of the relationship between a father and child, even where the child is no longer a teenager and not yet a lady. "I wanted to keep a subtle cue that it's a room of a girl who works. She is kind of an opinionated girl and not just a teen. At the same time, she is a daughter. In a way it's a transformation story where she transforms as a daughter and how the father, from a person with doubt, comes to celebrate his fatherhood with his daughter," explains Khan.

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During rehearsal sessions, the actors were asked to improvise with Khan giving cues to let both get to a layer within the personalities they portrayed on screen. The social class that the family comes from was kept in mind while decorating the set and creating the environment. At the same time, by showing a middle class family purchasing diamonds for a gift without reason, the film points out the affordability of the gem during this sale season.

"I wanted to play around both of my actor's subconscious so that moments come subtly! The danger of over play always ruins this kind of drama! I applied their personal choices and some theatrical tricks to blend them. I asked them to fight with a pillow on set to get right kind of reflex and body language. It was lot to do with how you warm up," says Khan.