Has Sunil Gupta, COO, RKSwamy/BBDO, quit the agency?

"Sunil Gupta is not available now." That is what Sunil Gupta, chief operating officer, RKSwamy/BBDO, told agencyfaqs! last evening when we called him up on his mobile phone to get a confirmation on this piece of news doing its rounds in the industry.

A call to Pankaj Mridul, national creative director, RKSwamy/BBDO, who is currently vacationing in Manali (Himachal Pradesh), was of little help. He said, "I am physically and mentally away from the office; so I do not know." However, sources close to agencyfaqs! seem to believe that Gupta has indeed pulled the curtains on his stint at RKSwamy/BBDO.

In fact, our trusted sources have also said that a recent note from RKSwamy/BBDO headquarters in Chennai to all the unit heads at the agency stated something to the effect that "Sunil Gupta is no longer working with RKSwamy/BBDO". However, our calls to most senior executives at the agency's various branches drew a blank. "We will neither confirm or deny the news," said an agency official. "It is not in the interest of the agency for this news to get out," said another.

If true, Sunil Gupta's departure would be as sudden as it is difficult to fathom. Gupta, who had assumed charge on December 2, 2002, would have barely completed nine months in office. What transpired in these few months and precipitated this move will come to the fore in due course, but the industry is already abuzz with multiple versions of the reason behind Gupta's hasty departure.

The level of speculation is understandable. In an industry where job-hopping is the norm, Gupta's first 22 years in advertising were spent in one agency - JWT (then HTA). He joined JWT, Delhi, in 1978 and took over as the branch head in 1999, to be shifted to Mumbai when incumbent Anil Bhatia passed away. With that move, it was widely speculated that Gupta would take over from chief executive Mike Khanna when he retired in 2003. But things took a different turn and he quit JWT to proceed on a long sabbatical that ended almost a year later when he took up the RKSwamy/BBDO assignment.

Now it is over to Gupta and RKSwamy/BBDO to set the record straight. © 2003 agencyfaqs!