India’s daily dose of emotion: ‘The Times of India’

For a brand that has used subtle humour as its tone of voice to connect with the common Indian man for years, this sure is a shift in strategy. For the first time, ‘The Times of India’ (‘TOI’) is trying to break out of the humorous positioning with which people have associated it so far.

The latest commercial for ‘The Times of India’ – created by Agnello Dias, senior vice-president and executive creative director, JWT, while he was still with Leo Burnett – treads the sober, emotional route, with its storyline drawing an interesting parallel between traditional and modern-day India.

Priya Gupta, associate general manager, ‘The Times of India’, talks about the history of the brand communication and says, “‘The Times of India’ is the oldest newspaper in India. Therefore, in comparison to other newspapers, we share the longest relationship with our readers.”

“Till now, ‘The Times of India’ brand communication commercials – around 10 of them, based on the theme, ‘A Day in the Life of India’ – were capturing the essence of India, using a humorous tone. But with this latest commercial, we wanted to portray the strong emotional bond that we have developed with our readers over a period of time,” says Gupta.

The creative brain behind the ad, Dias, shares a nugget regarding the creative idea. “It was an interesting thing that happened, actually,” he says. “I was running on a tight deadline and had only a couple of hours to come up with the creative idea. I woke up in the morning that day and took a look at ‘The Times of India’. I noticed an interesting fact: The birth and death columns (obituaries) were on the same page. It suddenly hit me that while someone in India was rejoicing at the beginning of a new life, another was mourning his loss. Everything co-exists in India. So, I thought to myself, why not juxtapose this insight into the commercial?”

“Another point is that, normally, a story begins sadly and has a happy ending. I decided to turn that around and started the ad with celebration and ended it on a sober note,” Dias adds.

The film opens on the shot of a young boy in a middle-class town, running towards a group of boys playing hockey. He holds a copy of ‘The Times of India’ in his hands. He waves the newspaper at the boys, shouting excitedly, “Arrey bhai log! Select ho gaya re apna Pakya! (Hey people! Our Pakya has been selected!)”

Next, the entire gang of boys is seen running enthusiastically along the ‘galis’ of the town, announcing Pakya’s selection to everyone in sight. When they encounter a band of musicians, they urge them to join in the celebration, and loud music follows.

Then they pass before a temple, where a sadhu is praying, and the entire gang suddenly grows quiet. They resume their festivities as soon as they pass by. All this while, the town folk are looking on curiously at the joyous procession.

Finally, the boys reach their destination: Pakya’s house. In the next shot, Pakya’s father emerges from the house, curious to know the reason for all the pandemonium. A boy then hands over the newspaper to the father, who reads the headline, ‘Prakash Mirajkar, New Face in Indian Olympic Hockey Team’. (At this point, the viewer realises that Pakya is short for Prakash.)

The ecstatic father shows the newspaper to his wife, who, equally excited, rushes to share the news with the head of the family, Pakya’s grandfather (played by Sumant Mastakar), who is sitting on an old chair. The grandfather removes his spectacles (which, incidentally, have a broken lens) and reads the headline.

The music suddenly recedes as realisation dawns on the old man’s face. He gets up quietly and walks into his room, where he opens a metal trunk and removes an old, tattered newspaper, yellow with age. It is the sports page of ‘The Times of India’ with a picture of the grandfather in his younger days, and a headline that reads, ‘Mirajkar Dropped from Indian Hockey Camp’. Feeling that he has regained his lost glory, the old man breaks into a spontaneous dance, expressing his joy in solitude.

The commercial ends with the super: ‘A Day in The Life of India. ‘The Times of India’.’

The soundtrack for the film has been composed by Ram Sampat. The film was shot in Pushkar, Rajasthan, over a period of four days. Abhinay Deo of Ramesh Deo Productions, who has directed the film, feels that the place where the film was shot has a pan-India feel to it.

He comments, “We were looking for a place that was neither a village nor a city. This one fit the typical Indian ‘small town’ get-up that we were seeking. Also, Dias and I deliberately put in shots such as the old man’s feet curling inwards when he first gets the news to the slow steps he takes towards his room. This is because the film is inspired less from a storyboard and more from real life.”

Deo continues, “The film also balances the essence of traditional and modern-day India beautifully. For instance, initially, the music was loud and joyous to portray modernity. But later, when the old man is having a private moment with himself, we used the same tune, but with a different, more subtle instrumentation, as the old man comes to terms with the burden of shame that he has lived with all his life.”

The filmmaker explains that the surprise element in the film comes at just the right time. “The viewer is made to think that the film is over when the parents get to know about the news, but the real story unveils after the grandfather reads the news,” says Deo.

Why choose hockey, which, despite being the national game, is far behind cricket in the popularity stakes in the country?

Clarifies Gupta of ‘The Times of India’, “The newspaper has always believed in authenticity. We have shown hockey not just because it is our national game. Since the old man compares the two papers, we had to show a game that was popular during his youth. At that time, hockey was much more popular than cricket.”

Talking about the new emotional approach adopted by the brand, Gupta remarks, “We Indians are very emotional people. In a sense, ‘The Times of India’ has been a medium through which the common man has shared his sorrows and his joys. To sum up, ‘The Times of India’ has been with our readers through good times and bad. That is the primary objective that we are trying to achieve through this ad – portray the fact that ‘The Times of India’ is one’s partner for life.”

“The second point that the ad brings out is the ‘heritage’ factor. This is one newspaper that has, over decades, become a morning habit with generation after generation of people. We used a typical, simple, middle-class family to bring out ‘A Day in the Life of India’, as most people in India can identify with such a family,” concludes Gupta.

© 2005 agencyfaqs!