When we received a communiqué from the Cannes Lions press office on Thursday, we almost missed the subtext. The annual Cannes Lions Global Creativity Report was announced and we were obviously looking at how India fares in it. The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2016 received a record-breaking 43,101 award entries from 91 countries in 2016. The 24 Lions awards were judged by 387 jurors and 61 countries took home trophies.
Now, the Global Creativity Report showcases the award-winning work, highlights the world’s most creative countries and cities, agencies and networks, and identifies the trends and themes at the heart of branded communications. Results from Cannes Lions, Lions Health, Lions Innovation and the new Lions Entertainment are incorporated. Other than agencies, offices and clients, the report also ranks top performing creatives including art directors, copywriters, creative directors and directors. Nicolas Hardy from Argentina becomes No1 director, a first time for the country, and Atul Kattukaran is the first Indian director to rank in the Top 10.
Who is is Atul Kattukaran? We googled and figured that he’s the director of the Reshma and Nike Films and is co-promoter of 1st December Films. We figured the office was very close to ours, called them and hopped across to meet Atul and his co-partner Ganesh Pareek. While most of the questions were answered by Atul, there were a few which Ganesh also responded to. Read on…
So how come you didn’t know about this?
I absolutely had no idea about it.
I must confess, the industry doesn’t know enough about you, though we all love your work and are familiar with it. So tell us about yourself. The only newslink I found via Google was to a Hindu feature on destination weddings!
So, work-wise I would like to start by saying work began with experimentation in films and I used to do a lot of stuff on my own this was back when I was in Bangalore. And there was lot of stuff that I tried. We made this film on Bangalore which went viral
So when was that?
This was back in what 2011–12. And then I met gentleman Ganesh (points to him) who is now a Producer and we spoke about this whole thing of doing something in advertising in general.
Where did you learn the craft?
On my own, this is a self-taught thing …
Sitting in Bangalore…
Yes, sitting in Bangalore, computer, internet.
School, college regular?
Regular school, college; I have a B.Com degree, no film background at all.
Which school?
St. Joseph’s. College was St Joseph… everything was St. Joseph.
Ganesh interrupts: You can tell him you are dyslexic??
I am very slow at reading, that’s why I don’t read too much. But dyslexia is not a big issue anymore. So coming back, I met Ganesh randomly and we got chatting and we spoke about advertising in general in India. Now the thing is there is some stuff happening here but we want it to do it something more, maybe bring in new technology, bring in new techniques.
Family background?
My dad was in business, mom homemaker…
No one in the media, nothing to do with films?
Not really, my brother is a photographer that’s it.
Elder?
Yes, elder brother.
So some influence was around?
No we started around the same time.
You met Ganesh after that?
I met him and we got talking. We did this one film called put up online it is called Little Bangalore I don’t know if you have seen it.
No.
So it went viral and we tried a new technique called Tilt Shift or everything it looks miniature I don’t know if out know about it.
That was in 2012?
Yes, and this whole idea of stop motion in photography is when we got chatting and we actually pitched the same idea to a few agency… I don’t want to take anybody’s name.
Incredible India?
We went there and met them like I said okay let’s pitch.
And how old were you at that time, how old are you now?
I am 30 now I just turned 30 so about 4 years ago so it could be 26. It would be 25 or 26.
You didn’t do anything after BCom, didn’t take up a job?
No nothing, ever since I was a kid I wanted to make films that’s something I always wanted to do. So anyways so we got these things we met these guys.
So let’s cut to your first big project. Incredible India
It was a big pitch, they loved it
And?
Forget it. We didnt’ get through it. Later on, with the same idea of stop motion and same technique is where Nike came in.
But stop motion as an art, as a form is nothing new…
Yes
So?
Of course, even the idea of tilt shift is not something which we have discovered but it is something which is not being done in our country. Everybody has this sense of ownership of his own country, his own city. Hence I wanted to make something for the city that I was born and bought up in hence a video for that city. Hence Little Bangalore.
And then Nike happened…
Yes, and we had the opportunity now to do something different. The brief was very cool and simple. Get the whole country to bowl one ball.You have seen the film, right?
Yes, How did you get to JWT.
One of my shots in Little Bangalore was from the JWT office in Bangalore. In Bangalore there are not too many high skyscrapers and this office was from the 12th floor. I met the films head and she let me go to the terrace and the cafeteria. There is a football scene in this that all is shot from the JWT office and I have even thanked them in the film. So basically everybody in Bangalore saw the film. It went viral for the first two days and was a big hit.
That’s how you got Nike from JWT?
Yeah, then there was this Nike campaign and we were briefed about it.. about stringing the the whole country and it is just one delivery, one ball. So we started coming up let’s do this and that. We spent close to one-and-half months including post-production. We went to 18 cities shooting, for which a lot of pre-production than the actual shoot was involved.
Whose idea was it?
So like I said that the brief that they gave us was to let the whole country bowl one ball, stop motion is something they had seen us doing before, and hence they wanted to explore the idea, they wanted to explore the technique. It was their idea to show the kids all over the place. They also give us the flipbook idea…
And that was your first big ad film? Well, your first ad film – big or small?
Yes.
And from then on it’s been a smooth ride
Ganesh: The moment Nike came out we knew we have lot of value, because of my art background I spoke to a lot of my firends, and, yes, from then we have had a lot of work.
Atul: We stated thinking about a lot of ideas, we met a lot of people …
Why 1st December… you all met that day?
No, 1st December 1903 was when the first-ever commercial film was released. But honestly there is not much philosophy behind the name
So let’s look at fast-forwarding through your work… after Nike came what?
Hmmm. What did we do after that? Peter England  We did hotstar this year, 5 rivers last year.. there was Maruti Baleno.
What would do you say is your best piece of work. Stuff that you are proud of?
Ganesh: No, no see Nike has taught us, it’s the first film that we did. I know it has got a lot of awards and it has all that behind it.
Atul: We have been growing we have doing better work ever since Nike, Nike was the start it will always be special, because it’s the first it’s the first film that we ever did…
Which has been your best work so far?
I personally like the Maruti film, I really like Channel V films and of course the Reshma film, which is so very different from all of these. It has a lot of meaning behind it. Frankly, I don’t want to pick favorites, but that one film is something different.
Mose satisfying? So with the Reshma film, was the idea of the film yours or Ogilvy’s?
The Reshma film started with them coming to us this is the concept of Stop Acid Sale. It’s an NGO we met.  Harshad and his partner from the agency [Ogilvy], told us about the NGO. We wanted to meet with the NGO person Ria Sharma. We actually met this girl, we went to her house, met her family, heard her story. It’s a terrible story. The acid attack you know was not even meant for her, but that day she was in wrong place at the wrong time. So now the thing is how do you connect with everybody and tell them that there is a problem in this country, and it has to be addressed the issue. Acid sale is there everywhere… people use it to clean their toilets, but we had to connect all these people to make them understand that the petition needs to be signed send to our Prime Minister that something needs to be done… which happened. After talking to her, we decided to go forward even though being an NGO, there we no budgets.
Ganesh: And then Atul spoke to his wife, and we didn’t charge anything. We spent our own.
Hmmm.
Now, you know, one of the most watched things online are tutorial videos, makeup tutorial videos specifically. We spoke with the agency and we came up with this plan and idea together. It wasn’t easy, given what happened to her. Half the face was missing… it’s very difficult to see. We were in tears. Every one in her family is very very good looking. Obviously she was in shock. The one person who really helped her was Ria from Delhi who started this NGO. She is almost like a second mother to Reshma, she helped her understand that as the ambassador of this campaign she can help a lot of people in the future.
So this whole idea of it the campaign etc. was essentially yours or it’s his or it is combined?
Atul and Ganesh: We can’t say because we discussed a lot.. it took us some three months to work on the concept, the script…
And you did all of it free of cost?
Yes. we have put all the money. Because otherwise the idea was not going to see the light of the day.
And clients and awards?
See with Nike, a lot of people came to us… we have got 100 + awards till. But this was different,
Hmmm
We were there in Cannes this year. but more than the award, it’s for the girll. Like in one of the three films, she is teaching everybody to put an eyeliner. Now, she doesn’t have eyelashes even. So it was very touching. She has immense hidden power.
How come you haven’t put up the Reshma film in your body of work on the site?
Reshma is not an ad for us actually. We didn’t go to any awards first. Even at Cannes we didn’t go to collect the award although we were there. If it wins an award, we are happy because that girl’s life will get better.
But the credits to the production company and direct exist?
Yes, they put it that is their choice.
But you don’t want to…
W did it for different reason, we did it for Reshma.
Tell me, what does being among the Top 10 directors of the world meant to you?
I don’t know I am trying to process it (laughs)… I just don’t know. Cannes was a real eye-opener where we saw amazing work being done. If you go back to the beginning of our conversation, our whole objective is to do good stuff, do good films and put it out there. If you see films that come out of Brazil for instance are amazing. So they have really dug deep into their culture, their roots their problems. India, with the second-largest population in the world, has so much material to talk about, so many subjects to cover, but I don’t we are doing justice to things around us for us. We have even met so many agencies and we’ve told them let’s collaborate, the whole system of writing scripts, going to your client they look at 25 and 50 scripts and pick 1 I don’t know, because the marketing guy said this will work and then they come to us and we look at it and we say that if you come at Stage 1 when one is writing those 50 ideas or you have a thought it will make much more sense we will be able to tell you which direction it can go and how it can be made.
But is that practically possible?
We did it, we have done it with one of our that is another thing we have gone directly to companies like Star India. The whole network actually. They gave us six films in one year and they took all our idea and gave us money and they’re very happy. Whatever you see of Star, except hotstar is stuff that we’ve gone directly. Everything starts with a thought: what do you want to do? What do you want to say?
Are agencies okay with it? To find that you’ll directly with the client?
Ganesh: We’re not telling you that we will tell you how the brand is. I’ve spoken to a lot of creative people and we’ve figured out they have a lot of work. They are very talented but clients somehow dominate and they don’t listen to great ideas. They also have a job to do. So, they told us they have good ideas. We thought we’d help contribute… Because, at the end of the day it comes to the film maker.
What according to you got you the award… it is for Cannes Lions and you say you didn’t even enter the awards for Reshma. And they selected you. You have sett the benchmark for creative excellence, it’s the definitive ranking is from the Annual Cannes Lion Global Creativity report has been announced
We haven’t sent it. We didn’t enter for it. This is the film that they [Ogilvy] sent.
That is commendable because… it was sent not for Film Craft… you’ll haven’t sent it and they’ve still selected you despite the fact that you didn’t enter.
It’s a good thing. Feels good. We did the right thing. We didn’t attach ourselves to awards. But the thing is that if you want to go back and see… I don’t want to sound clichéd, the truth is you should see how this girl’s life has changed. She walked the New York Fashion Week. That’s our happiest moment.
Ganesh: I showed my wife that see, this girl is our inspiration. We feel we should have the courage she had. It’s all her I believe. If she didn’t want to do this film, it wouldn’t have happened. It’s her destiny. You know there was actually a court hearing on the subject. Everyone has woken up suddenly. When something big happens, that’s when… They also posted it. People are rooting for her also, that she should win the case. So, again, why? So, all of this has been led…
Moving on, Iis there something specific that you’ll are good at and you’ll like to do…
Yes, films related to sports is something I’m obsessed with. I want to tell the story of sports in this country through advertising, feature films, whatever it is. That’s one area. If you ask me as a subject, that’s something I want to do something about. There are stories on sports that we have seen from India specifically. It’s good, it can be better.
So, you’d like to eventually look at feature films.
Of course.
Is there something you’re working on?
You can say, there is something that we’re working on. It’s not something we can talk about at this stage but when the time comes.
Is there any timeframe you’re looking at?
It’s something that we’ve discussed. We’ve set a timeline. It’s very near. We have to completely exit advertising. We will do things parallel.
So you’ve set up this thing with Anup Joseph?
He’s my brother. He uses the shorter version of our surname. I use Atul Kattukaran.
Also based in Mumbai?
No, he’s in Bangalore but he keeps flying because his family is there.
Okay. Given the fact that there are reasonably big film makers here in India this is the first time somebody from India has been selected to be in the Top 10.. it’s huge. Where do you see yourself in the midst of all the others around us?
I don’t want to compare with anyone out there the kind of films we do. That’s one decision we’ve made pretty early in this career we’ve had so far. In India there are a lot of story-based films on mother, father or all those things… Those are something we won’t touch. I’m talking about advertising specifically. Most of our Indian films are based on family. You know what I’m talking about. The kind of work we do is very different. If you go by our showreel, it’s very edgy. It’s very fast. It’s very visual-based. If you look at it in that little universe, the people doing that kind oif work are much fewer than everybody else in the ad fraternity. Wouldn’t you agree to that?
I agree. But I must confess I hadn’t heard of you’ll.
We mutually decided to stay low. Let’s focus on work. Social media is a lot of self-appreciation, self-praise and it distracts you.
I only saw one article of yours which was about your destination wedding.
We turned down the Reshma interview because we didn’t want to promote ourselves.
So, what next?
Ganesh: There’s a lot that’s coming. Let’s see. There were a lot of commercial offers but he said no (pointing to Atul). Then I also decided I didn’t want to get into this stuff. I said they’re asking us to do what everybody is doing. What’s the point?
So, for every offer that comes to you, how many do you turn down?
Ganesh: I think 44 to 47 offers in a month. That’s the status from the last 11-12 months. Now it’s one per 90-95. It’s just the fact that we believe in what we do. We say we won’t work on these kind of things.
Atul: We do something like one film in a month but we do have to believe in what we do. It’s only then that you’ll see the results. If you don’t believe in something, it will show in it’s reproduction.
Next step is a feature film or more ads?
Right now, we want to do a lot of ads. Like he said, there will be a stage where we know that enough has been done and the ball is rolling. We want to spend some time in advertising. We want to make good films. So, maybe the trend of good films…
And more money?
Of course, money is always good to have. In the creative process, that stream of consciousness, some of the ideas stay with us, we make them into the film.
We’ve had Happy from Bangalore being acquired recently. Would you ever be looking at getting bought out?
I don’t think so. No chance. Our purpose between us is that we want to do this only for a limited time till we know that we’ve done enough and then it’s… we will move on.
Ganesh: I’ve turned down a lot of money as well, as a producer. I’ve said no completely to directors outside. We are sticking to that. We know what we are. 100%. The kind of material we have right now, we can easily rock for the next 10 years. We develop a lot of ideas. It’s all here.
What is the team strength here?
7-8 permanent and the rest is all depending on work. But, I think these people are groomed in terms of philosophy. We go with a fresh mind, we train them. We have a module where we decide this is how we have to think. This is our process. That’s all! And the process is… the first think we teach to be creative is… Don’t get into self promotion. Come up with your own ideas. Everybody follows that. You won’t know about our team also. They’re so silent, but they are brilliant. People have hired our editor because they can’t get us. He’s a freelancer. Everybody hires him and they realize, he works into combination.