When “beera” became “jeera”: how Talented crafted a R.D Burman earworm for Rimzim’s return

Hearing R.D. Burman belt out “Jeera, jeera, taraa taraa taraa…” instead of the familiar “Beera, beera… tara tara taraa…” is enough to make anyone do a double take. The playful tweak turns a cult Hindi track into an earworm, now repurposed to announce the return of Rimzim Jeera.

Once owned by Parle and part of The Coca-cola Company’s portfolio since 1994, the drink was discontinued in the early 2000s as the beverage major doubled down on its cola portfolio. Its comeback, however, arrives in a markedly different market.

In a post-Lahori Jeera world, where the challenger has become the cultural incumbent in the jeera soda space, Coca-Cola now finds itself attempting a category reset.

In a conversation with afaqs,Tanima Kohli, creative at Talented, spoke about the brief, the decision to lean on nostalgia, and the strategy behind turning an old Hindi classic into a mnemonic for a modern relaunch.

1. Rimzim Jeera may have legacy equity, but the category has evolved with newer names gaining cultural momentum. What was the core brief: reintroduce nostalgia or redefine the brand for a new generation?

The brief was to crack a campaign for a drink from the ’80s. So nostalgia was our entry point, but not the destination. We had to honour the cult equity while making it culturally relevant for a generation rediscovering pride in local flavours.

Gone are the days of singing “Vicco turmeric, nahi cosmetic” or “Washing powder Nirma.” That era allowed repetition to compound over time. Today, attention is fractured and unforgiving.

Coming from Coca-Cola, the ambition was never regional. It had to be pan-India in scale and ambition. While several challenger brands are culturally dominant in pockets, many are confined to specific geographies. We had the opportunity to build the category at scale, backed by distribution, media muscle, and retail visibility. So the task at hand was to relaunch the drink while simultaneously expanding the playing field.

2. The thought Jeere mein heera reframes the drink as a hidden gem. What was the core consumer insight behind this line, and how did it influence the creative direction?

The line and insight came straight from the product experience. The moment you take a sip, there’s a strong kick of jeera that hits you. It’s so predominant that it stands as the clear winner on the taste parameter. And since it was already a loved brand, cueing into that legacy seemed like the right way to go.

3. The reimagined R.D. Burman track turns into an earworm built around repetition. Were you aiming to build a sonic mnemonic first and then a narrative film second?

We set out to solve the brief with conviction, and it also happened to become an earworm built around repetition.
In exploring multiple routes, formats, and songs, we were looking for a culturally memorable way to express the idea.

When we came across this track, we knew there was no going back. For us and our partners at Coke, it was a moment of collective instinct. Something felt right that would drive recall, build the category, and most importantly, get people hooked.

4. Instead of creating an original jingle, the film leans on a reimagined Hindi track. At a time when nostalgia-led music is becoming a familiar shortcut in advertising, was this a creative conviction or a strategic way to fast-track recall and social virality? Are brands losing faith in building fresh sonic assets from scratch?

Since the objective was to relaunch a drink from the 80s, to do justice, we intentionally recreated that
cultural energy by choosing a track from the same era. The song wasn’t a random pick. It was a calculated play on muscle memory, designed to make people laugh, pause, and genuinely question what they had been singing all this while.

Was it veeeera, beeeera, or actually jeeeeera? When we couldn’t get it out of our heads, we were sure India would love it too.

More importantly, the media environment has fundamentally shifted. The moment a brand name feels forced, the audience scrolls. Gone are the days of singing “Vicco turmeric, nahi cosmetic” or “Washing powder Nirma.” That era allowed repetition to compound over time. Today, attention is fractured and unforgiving.

To register now, you cannot behave yourself. You have to disrupt expectations. That is why we unleashed a rapid, high-energy visual progression from animate to inanimate objects, building a hypnotic graph of the unexpected.

5. Did you consider leaning more strongly into product benefits, or was building cultural buzz the bigger objective at this stage?

The product is at the core of it. From the creative articulation to the choice of song to the way it was
cut in the edit, everything stems from the fun jolt of the drink. One sip and the carbonation, along with that sharp kick of jeera, gives you a slight shiver. We leaned into that boldness because the drink genuinely allowed us to do so.

Creatively, everything came together piece by piece, and not one beat seemed off. There was a clear method to the madness we deployed, building cultural buzz while staying completely true to the nature of the drink.

6. When a legacy multinational brand finds itself competing with an indie challenger that has become the cultural incumbent, how does that shift your creative lens and risk appetite?

For a creative, that’s the best kind of challenge. Our mandate was to relaunch Rimzim Jeera, tap into local culture, and scale the category. While challenger brands may be strong in certain markets, our playing field was national. We approached it from a macro lens.

As for risk appetite, we knew conventional thinking was not going to unlock growth. We had to stop solving the brief purely from the left side of the brain and start striking the right chords. Because cultural impact requires intuition and scale demands audacity.

In the span of a few days, we’ve made meaningful strides towards establishing Rimzim Jeera as a brand to remember. It’s heartening to see the impact advertising can have on a category like this.