After a bumpy ride in ad land, Tanishq hits gold in new film about pre-nup conversations

Most people spend their lives searching for their one true love. The lucky ones who find them, sometimes decide to get married to them. The ‘big, fat Indian wedding’ is quite a stressful event.

The latest ad by Tanishq, the leading Bengaluru-based jewellery brand and a division of Titan Company, looks past the event. It attempts to highlight conversations around married life, beyond the wedding.

The campaign is conceptualised and executed by Dentsu Webchutney, a dentsuMB company and the digital creative agency from the house of dentsu India. It aims to encourage couples to have conversations about marriage and the life they want to build together, as much as the wedding itself.

The ad is a long format video of over three minutes, and touches upon topics like financial stability, mental health and adopting children. The film itself is crafted by Superfly Films.

Interestingly, the ad doesn’t talk about wedding jewellery at all. The jewellery that the actors are seen wearing in the ad, are simple everyday pieces, and there is emphasis on engagement rings that the couple are wearing towards the end of the ad.

Over a call, afaqs! caught up with the team that created the ad - Gaurav Midha, deputy group manager, Tanishq; Binaifer Dulani, creative director, Dentsu Webchutney; and Kopal Naithani, founder and director, Superfly Films.

Dulani reveals that the brief to the team was to create a progressive ad that highlights Tanishq’s brand values. It was her idea to build the campaign around the idea of ‘marriages not weddings’. The team eventually decided that the ad should be around the narrative of conversations on life after marriage.

She reveals that during the script brainstorming session, multiple scenarios were thought of. The team wrote multiple scripts around different scenarios.

“The entire conversation around marriages begins with the wedding, and the jewellery and clothes that one wears to the event. Tanishq, as a brand, is also present at moments beyond the weddings, such as anniversaries and birthdays,” says Dulani.

Superfly’s Naithani, the ad’s director, mentions that the three conversations in the ads take place in very different settings. The visual treatment is meant to capture different couples, who may be in different stages of their relationships.

“We also came up with the backstories for all these characters in order to build the narrative. In the car scene, the couple has been in a relationship for a while. The conversation takes place in the car when he’s dropping her home. If you recall, the woman tells her partner that they'll finally be living together.”

“In the cafe setup, the couple could be one who is in the midst of an arranged marriage scenario and, hence, they’re meeting and having this conversation in a public space. The first couple who talks about adoption is an elderly one, who share a different relationship. The theme of all these conversations is honesty.”

Dulani adds that for research, she, Naithani and Midha had to speak to different couples, who were going through various struggles. The ad was born out of these deeply personal experiences and insights.

In a press release, Naithani adds, “For me, the best creative work is also deeply personal. This film took me back to the conversation I had with my husband 11 years ago.”

“Our mission, at Superfly, has always been to use the power of storytelling to build a more progressive society. We're happy to have had the opportunity to inspire a whole generation of soon-to-be couples across India to talk about their realities, beyond the wedding.”

Despite the brand’s attempts to portray a progressive society, a 2020 ad that the agency What’s Your Problem created for Tanishq, was criticised for portraying a marriage between a Muslim man and a Hindu woman. The ad portrayed the woman’s baby shower and was trolled heavily on social media.

“We don’t want to offend any community or ideology or point of view. We had to be respectful and be mindful of that while creating the ad,” says Dulani.

“It’s definitely at the back of our minds, but we didn’t want that to stop us from having a progressive conversation. As long as we try and stay true to what we do, we should be fine. When an ad intentionally wants to grab eyeballs, it may get caught in the crossfire of social media. The reaction to our ad has been largely positive so far,” Tanishq’s Midha signs off.

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