MxMIndia

Tag: Saif Ali Khan

  • Contract partnered Asian Paints to launch this campaign across India

    Say ‘No to Nice’, affirms Royale in new TVC

    By A Correspondent

     

    Royale from Asian Paints, the luxury emulsion paint brand was looking for a unique viewpoint which would pierce the hearts and minds of their consumers and shake them out of the slow descent into choosing things which will just about do.

     

    As the leader in the luxury paints segment, it decided to take up a crusade against people accepting the acceptable in their lives and encouraging them to embrace only the extraordinary.

     

    Contract viewed this as a problem that is not only rampant in the luxury paints category but in the overall lives of people in India at large where the “Chalta Hai” attitude has seeped into even the most refined tastes, and so the idea of saying ‘No to Nice’ came to life.

     

    “Royale which stands for impeccable performance and ahead of the curve décor sensibilities, represents the large quest, a quest for the extraordinary. Saif Ali Khan truly personifies this philosophy. It is a continuous journey of exploring and re-inventing the choices you make in life. It’s all about exceeding one’s own expectations and not settling for the status quo. We believe that this new conversation will create excitement and add a new dimension to life,” said Amit Syngle, President Marketing & Technology, Asian Paints.

     

    Talking of the film, Ashish Chakravarty, NCD – Contract Advertising says, “For Royale, we wanted to change the conversation from just fine décor to a quest for the extraordinary. So what’s the enemy of extraordinary? That feeling of being satisfied with the ok, the just good, the expected. The ‘nice’.  Now the thought of Saif Ali Khan as the ‘purveyor of all things extraordinary’ was perfect for the persona he comes with. So in the film we turn the tables on him when it comes to interior décor…now that made for a very compelling story for Royale to tell.”

     

    Contract decided to use Saif Ali Khan, the brand ambassador for Royale, in a situation that would elegantly reflect how sometimes even the most refined palates slip up when it comes to their home decor.

     

    Contract partnered Asian Paints to launch this campaign across India.

     

  • The launch of Pan Bahar Crystal gave the company a great opportunity to reposition their flagship brand

    DDB Mudra unveils new multimedia campaign for Pan Bahar

    By A Correspondent

     

    Pan Bahar, the pioneers and the primary manufacturers of pan masala, are known to the world as the ‘Heritage Pan Masala’. The company recently ventured in the ultra-premium segment with the launch of ‘Pan Bahar Crystal’, the world’s most expensive Pan Masala.

     

    The launch of Pan Bahar Crystal gave the company a great opportunity to reposition their flagship brand. Thus, a multi-media campaign with the new positioning ‘Pehchan Kaamyabi Ki’ (Identity of Success) was launched with none other than Saif Ali Khan as the brand ambassador.

     

    Spread across print, television and digital, the brand has come up with interesting strategies to promote the campaign and to introduce Pan Bahar Crystal to its loyalists. The recently launched ad film featuring Bollywood superstar Saif Ali Khan is being publicized on the brand’s social pages. Pan Bahar also ran an online contest in connection to the ad film which one could participate in by watching the film, visiting the brand’s website and correctly answering the three questions.

     

    Vandana Das
    Sambit Mohanty

    Vandana Das, President, DDB Mudra North, said, “The objective of the campaign was to establish Pan Bahar as a brand with a unique and aspirational identity that consumers could easily symbolize with success. The brand category to which Pan Bahar belongs to is largely driven by loyalty and hence great emphasis has been laid on using success and achievement- aspirational tone of communication.”

    Sambit Mohanty, Creative Head, DDB Mudra North quoted, “In challenging times, a person needs anchors that help him take a unique identity and make a personality statement. But for some people, their achievements are their identity – they don’t need to shout out loud that they’ve ‘arrived’. Their achievements do it for them. This is the thought that we used while crafting this campaign.”

     

    Akhil Jain, CEO, Pan Bahaar said, “Pan Bahar as a brand has continually set benchmarks in the industry by delivering excellence through innovation of process and uniformity of taste, in our product offerings. The campaign has given a great emphasis on having arrived in life, success & achievement- aspirational tonality. It’s all about making a life-style statement.”

     

     

     

  • The campaign has been designed to showcase apparel for every facet of a successful man's life

    Oxemberg launches print campaign with ambassador Saif Ali Khan

    By A Correspondent

     

    Oxemberg recently shot a print advertisement campaign with Saif Ali Khan, the ambassador of the brand. The campaign has been designed to showcase apparel for every facet of a successful man’s life. The print campaign showcases Saif posing in style and elegance to display the flair and panache of the new collection.

     

    Speaking on the occasion, Gaurav Poddar, Executive Director, Siyaram Silk Mills Ltd. commented, “Oxemberg is an established brand with a lineage of quality, style and elegance. The brand has been associated with finest fabrics and cutting edge designs while retaining a sense of eternal style and elegance. Our main objective was to project the classy and wide range and nothing could have been better than shooting with the star of style, Saif Ali Khan. Saif ably demonstrated quality of the products carrying the Oxemberg label.”

     

  • Most critics derided the lack of a plot and proper characterization in Bullett Raja giving it a 2 or 2.5 stars and one with just half a star, notes Deepa Gahlot

    Reviewing the Reviews: Critics say Bullett Raja lacks the plot

    By Deepa Gahlot

     

    Bullett Raja

    Director: Tigmanshu Dhulia

    Starring: Saif Ali Khan, Sonakshi Sinha, Vidyut Jamwal etc

     

    If it was just some random filmmaker trying to put together a potboiler, Bullett Raja would not have been such a disappointment, but there were hopes from Tigmanshu Dhulia post Paan Singh Tomar.

     

    To begin with, Saif Ali Khan is miscast as a middle class UP goon. He looks even more out of place when every other actor seems comfortable in the rugged milieu.

     

    Most critics derided the lack of a plot and proper characterization, and gave it 2 or 2.5 stars… and one half-star from rediff.com.

     

    Aniruddh Guha of Time Out commented, “Bullett Raja, in spite of the “big budget” tag, is Dhulia’s shoddiest film since Shagird. The acting is inconsistent, the screenplay patchy, the background score jarring and the editing jumpy. Some things remain consistent – Dhulia’s regular collaborator Dhananjay Mondal gets the art direction spot-on again, while the dialogues, written by the director himself and which he seems to have better control over than most of his contemporaries, have verve. The intention is clear: to make a no-holds-barred action entertainer, with the director’s trademark humour and style intact. Yet, the result is a bit of a botched effort, the body of the film resembling the Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster films, but the soul screaming Dabangg. (Filmmakers need to realise that Dabangg was a fun throwback to the masala films of the ’70s, sorely missed at that time, while everything else that followed – including Dabangg 2 - seems like a poor Dabangg clone.)”

     

    Deepanjana Pal writing in Firstpost.com ranted, “It’s difficult to decide what is the most disappointing aspect of Bullett Raja. Is it that Dhulia, who won such acclaim for his small-budget films, has botched up so comprehensively with this wannabe blockbuster? Could it be the soundtrack that is a thumping, tuneless cacophony? Or is it the lazy writing that can’t be bothered with either building characters or a coherent storyline? With its emphasis on machismo and male bonding, Bullett Raja is clearly targeted at the manly men puffing up the country’s male population as Khan does his chest and biceps. What does it say about that audience that Bullett Raja is Dhulia at his silliest and most inept?”

     

    Paloma Sharma of Rediff.com was bored to death. “Bullett Raja is rife with predictable scenes, bad editing and a lack of control over the script, which spirals into an unending loop of absurdity. The pseudo-patriotism blends into personal enmity with the corrupt without much warning, leaving the viewers confused.

     

    While no two people can like the same kind of films or even agree on the definition of a good film, it is difficult to judge if even hardcore Saif Ali Khan fans should go for this one.”

     

    Sanjukta Sharma of Mint wrote, “His new film Bullett Raja strays far from the work he has built so far. It is a wishy-washy mix of two brazen hinterland heroes’ misadventures, a revenge drama, and a soap-opera style, hackneyed depiction of Uttar Pradesh politics. Dhulia’s dialogues (he has co-written the screenplay and written the dialogues) are insipid, and the humour, perhaps intended to be madcap, borders on the imbecile. The lead characters, Raja (Saif Ali Khan) and Rudra (Jimmy Shergill) are mere vehicles to keep a muddled narrative afloat. They have no signature quirk, as pulp heroes would demand.”

     

    Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN wrote, “What’s disappointing then is that Bullett Raja isn’t consistently engaging. Aside from the rather choppy editing, there are also random scenes strewn about carelessly. Sonakshi Sinha plays an aspiring actress who comes in contact with Raja and Rudra.  We’re never sure why this sweet middle-class Bengali girl insists she wants to tag along with two gangsters for the ride. She falls all-too-easily in love with Raja, even though they appear as far removed as chalk and cheese. The flabby, unnecessary portions in this film include the hiatus these three take to Mumbai, a plot diversion that serves no purpose other than to fit in a silly nightclub number.”

     

    Anupama Chopra of Hindustan Times commented, “Tigmanshu, who also co-wrote the story, gives Saif a full-bodied character to inhabit but he fails to provide the character a compelling story to work with. Bullett Raja is a standard issue revenge story with the usual array of corrupt ministers, cops, criminals and their machinations as elections loom large. The screenplay is half-baked and strangely disjointed so, at one point, randomly we end up in Mumbai, where we get the item song Tamanche Pe Disco.”

     

    The surprise rave came from Vinayak Chakravorty of India Today. “Quite a gunfest of goons actually, the stock dialoguebaazi, love-shuv, a villain’s pack, even an item number thrown in. There is a standard Jai-Veeru type buddy bonding track in place, too. If Tigmanshu Dhulia wanted to go mainstream this time, he has literally piled the jingbang.  Be sure there is a context to all of it. Even masala madness acquires the subtext of socio-politics if Dhulia sets out imagining it. Bullett Raja turns the murky caste-infested politics of Uttar Pradesh into pop spectacle. The outcome is solid bang for your bucks.”

     

  • For the national marketing campaign of Appy Fizz, Creativeland Asia has used brand ambassador Saif Ali Khan's dream as the new hangout spot for the drink

    CLA creates dream sequence for Appy Fizz with Saif

    By A Correspondent

     

    For the national marketing campaign of Appy Fizz, Creativeland Asia has used brand ambassador Saif Ali Khan’s dream as the new hangout spot for the drink.

     

    In the TVC, which released on the official brand YouTube channel, Appy Fizz walks into Saif’s dream of a dance sequence on the hit number ‘Mein Khiladi, tu Anadi’. Midway through the dream when Saif realizes Appy Fizz is in his dream, he is miffed at him. Nonetheless, they continue to enjoy the limelight together, jumping around doing funky dance moves to the peppy Bollywood track.

     

    The campaign opened on social media platforms; Twitter and Facebook. #SaifNFizzhangout trended constantly on Twitter both in, India and worldwide. Thus, increasing the base of consumers for engagement in real-time for remainder of the year.

     

    This year, Creativeland has redesigned the packaging of the can variant of Appy Fizz to provide fresh content for its young and loyalist consumers. The can highlights the witty and fun ‘can’ jokes in a graffiti-inspired font.

     

    Says Nadia Chauhan, Joint Managing Director & CMO, Parle Agro, “Since the launch of Appy fizz, we have year after year launched highly differentiated creative and marketing strategies. While we launched the sparkling fruit based beverage category in India, many brands soon followed.” Speaking on the brand, she further added, “Our unique approach towards the brand is what has resulted in us having a 99.9% market share and has resulted in the brand growing by a triple digit growth rate year on year. Our 2013 campaign is particularly very exciting because our own Appy Fizz does a Bollywood number. And this has already shown us huge results in creating scale and cut-through, making the brand larger than ever before.”

     

    Commenting on the campaign, Sajan Raj Kurup, Founder and Creative Chairman, and who is also the director of the film, said, “Appy Fizz films are always delightful to do. They are funny, crazy, and very Appy Fizz. I particularly enjoyed this one since this is the closest I have got to do a Bollywood item number. It was great fun working with Appy Fizz and Saif Ali Khan. They both behaved well on the sets.”

     

    The campaign has been conceptualized by Creativeland Asia. The film has been directed by Sajan RaJ Kurup himself and has been produced by ESTD (Easier Said Than Done) films. The visual effects and the animations are created by MFX in Kuala Lumpur.

     

    On this continuing association, Actor Saif Ali Khan says, “I’ve been hanging out with Appy Fizz for two years now and this is our fourth cool commercial. I can’t put in words how much I enjoyed shooting with my buddy. So I danced. Ok, we danced. But really, working with Appy Fizz and Parle Agro has been awesome. The premise of this new TVC is the coolest by far. (It’s like my dream come true!) The music is something I’ve been a part of before. Reliving something like that after almost 19 yrs was really special.”

     

    This campaign also marks the addition of new content on the brand microsite www.appyfizz.com. The new content involves a fresh website design including witty one-liners, a cool new interactive chat window, where consumers can talk and ask as many questions to Appy Fizz online. There will be two new digital elements that include a blog ‘Fizzy logic’ and a ‘Fizz’ video channel.

     

    This year, the campaign activities also include making available to consumers Appy Fizz branded merchandise and accessories. These branded products can be bought on the brand microsite.

     

  • To say the commercial is so-not-funny would be a mild statement. The exchange between the various characters didn't just bore me, it made me squirm.

    Debrief: No Fizz, only Ewwwwww!

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    This one might possibly be the worst TV commercial on air right now. Everything’s gone wrong out here. The Appy Fizz ad involves some very trite banter between actor Saif Ali Khan and his pals, as they lounge somewhere. The drink, which has come alive, adds in its two bits of nonsense. I am not even going to describe this ad, that’s too boring a task. Please watch it for yourself.

     

    [youtube width=”400″ height=”200″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWVoq1ePqx0[/youtube]

    Where do I begin? Saif Ali Khan? What’s the point of casting a middle aged angry actor for a ‘buddy hang out’ drink? How does he fit in? Next. Since the ad is entirely conversation based and nothing else happens aside from that, wit and sharp humour become key ingredients. To say the commercial is so-not-funny would be a mild statement. Truth be told, I haven’t heard such silly, juvenile banter amongst junior school kids. If the copywriter is weak on humour, he/she must avoid that route like the plague. The exchange between the various characters didn’t just bore me, it made me squirm. And of course, no one tells us what makes Appy Fizz a special drink. That it talks utter rubbish is all we know.

     

    By the way, they missed one little trick. What would have generated some laughs is if the angry middle aged actor punched the Appy Fizz bottle on its face. Boom! Chhote nawab is particularly good at these things. Had they done that, I would have given the ad a few stars. For sure.

     

    Rating: (On a scale of 1 to 5): 0. Humour falls flat.

  • Creativeland Asia creates a series of TVCs and a micro site www.appyfizz.com for Appy Fizz as part of the campaign, adding more fun and excitement to hanging out.

    Appy Fizz finds a new buddy in Saif Ali Khan

    By Shubhangi Mehta

     

    Appy Fizz, ‘the cool drink to hang out with’ has found Saif Ali Khan, a new and popular face as a pal. Popular amongst his gang of friends for his sparkling wit, one liners and tireless fizz, Appy Fizz, will now be seen hanging out with Saif Ali Khan, in a series of TVCs created by Creativeland Asia.

     

    In the films, we see Appy Fizz hanging out with Saif and friends during his shoots for films. In the first film from a campaign of three, we see Saif greet his friends as he enters his personal pad at the film studio right after pack up. Appy Fizz jumps out of the fridge eager to see his friend after his long hours at work, startling Saif. Saif then introduces Appy Fizz to his bunch of friends. And then there is no stopping Appy Fizz. In his typical witty style, Appy Fizz boasts to his new friends how Saif and he have done many films together, as even a confused Saif finds this unbelievable. Appy Fizz then explains how he was always present in the intervals at the popcorn-and-drinks counter. This funny banter continues and we see Appy Fizz win the hearts of his new friends with his light-hearted banter.

     

    Nadia Chauhan, Joint Managing Director & CMO, Parle Agro, said: “Saif Ali Khan is a great youth icon who loves his work as much as his life. The actor brings in the cool quotient to Appy Fizz’s friends circle, and both complement each other and make a very entertaining duo. We’re sure the two will make a winning pair.”

     

    She added: “Right from inception, Appy Fizz has been a runaway success. It is the creation of not just a successful brand but a successful category and we are the only players offering such a unique product in the market. We see huge potential in this brand and its massive acceptance has us led us to investing heavily in it. We see a very large growth contribution from Appy Fizz this year and in the years to come.”

     

    Commenting on the campaign, Sajan Raj Kurup, Founder and Creative Chairman, Creativeland Asia, said: “I’m glad we have been able to design a campaign that preserves the sanctity of Appy Fizz communication over the years and yet build in a popularity factor through Saif Ali Khan as a celebrity cast. What makes it even cooler is the fact that it has been able to depict Saif Ali Khan as a hangout buddy and not necessarily a celebrity endorser in the campaign.”

     

    On this new association Saif Ali Khan said: “It gives me great pleasure to be associated with Appy Fizz and look forward to a long fruitful relationship with the brand. I believe brand endorsements are partnerships which go beyond what one sees on TV and Print. Appy Fizz came to me with really exciting concepts which got me interested. Many new ideas and innovations will be seen by the consumer shortly and I am confident that they will be loved.”

     

    As part of the campaign, Creativeland Asia has also designed and developed a microsite, www.appyfizz.com making hanging out even more fun and interesting and a lot simpler for friends. So, if someone wants to hang out with their friends all they have to do is visit the website, and choose one of the options for hanging out with friends either at a nightclub, a bar, a cafe, an entertainment or for a house party. Once they choose an option, Appy Fizz asks them a locality they are interested to hang out in and accordingly suggests to them suitable places they can go to in that specific area. If the visitor opts for a house party, Appy Fizz suggests places in the vicinity where they can buy drinks, food or any other supplies from. Friends can even create an event complete with details like time and place and automatically post it on Facebook and Twitter and invite friends for the same. Creativeland Asia has also developed aMobile application for those on the move.

     

    The website is designed like Saif Ali Khan’s personal pad at the film studio, complete with a music system that allows you to play your choice of sound track as you explore the website, and a Television that connects you to the Appy Fizz page on Youtube.

     

    The campaign has been conceptualised by Creativeland Asia and the films have been directed by Sajan Raj Kurup and have been co-produced by equinox and Crocodile films. The VFX and the animation has been done by Mfx inKuala Lumpur.

     

  • It looks like the media (who thrive on noise of their own kind) has accepted that every Indian famous and otherwise, has an inalienable, constitutional right to make as much noise whenever and wherever he/she pleases, notes Gouri Dange

    [MJR] Gouri Dange: Why this silence over the noise?

    By Gouri Dange

     

    Since the feeding frenzy over the Saif tidbit that fell into the media shark tank is over, one is loathe to bring it up again and create more sites where the moronic incident will pop up on search engines. But there’s one thing that no one asked or discussed anywhere in any medium, earth, fire, water, or air – meaning print, Hindi news channels, English news channels and on the internet: Is it not at all legitimate and reasonable for a person to ask for quiet and decorum in a public space?

     

    As backward and foolish and boorish as the punching out of a diner in the Taj by Saif, is the attitude that he (and crores of his fellow Indians) display when he airily said to the man who asked him and his women and men pals repeatedly to keep it down: ‘If you want silence, go to a library’. (Fortunately he thought of ‘library’ and not ‘graveyard’).

     

    Ha! Is that the only place where one can expect and demand some quiet in this sub-continent, is what SOMEONE should have asked this Nawabling, when the story was being followed so closely. But, typically, all we had by way of coverage is ‘who started it’ and ‘what did the Taj have to say’ and ‘was there CCTV footage or not’, and ‘was Saif’s phone on or off’ and other such nitty-gritty matters delivered to us with such round-the-clock efficiency by every media that there is. But about the fact that he was making enough noise for fellow diners (who are not all gosh-golly about Bollywood) to find him and everyone at his table galling and bad for the digestion, no one said a thing. At least someone could have asked him that prim but significant question that our teachers asked us often: “Is this what your mummy-daddy taught you to do?”

     

    However, it looks like the media too (who thrive on noise of their own kind) has accepted that every Indian famous and otherwise, has an inalienable, constitutional right to make as much noise whenever and wherever he/she pleases. No one asked the Princelet whether he felt free to talk, shout, laugh and horse around in any country outside the sub-continent. I’m trying to think of him and his gang in some toney restaurant in the western world behaving this way in the first place (forget punching out a fellow-patron) and I can’t see it happening. On top of it, the media reports that 48 hours later, when he had come down off his uncha-ghoda, he admitted that he had done something wrong (as opposed to the previous day’s “mummy-tell-him-no…he-beat-me-first” stance) he said something about “We (the royal We) should set a good example as we are constantly watched…etc”. My point is, you should behave well not because you are watched but because your mummy-daddy spent good money getting you an education and some polish. And because other people have a right to be in a pleasant dining situation (outside of a library).

     

    It was only some voices of Facebook et al that were all a-twitter with the right questions on this ‘silence is only in libraries’ school of Indian philosophy.  And about how the same minor-Mughals behave impeccably in public places outside of this great land, where silence and not shoving people is kind of expected of everyone.

     

    One last point that any responsible media person must kindly caution these Beautiful People (various Khans, Aroras, and suchlike) about after such a fracas, is this: don’t get into physical brawls, because you never know, those hair weaves, that botox, the silicon, and the stitches, can all come undone right there in public, and then what a mess there will be to clean up. (And can the media possibly NOT quote a bunch of puranay-paapi ‘vouching’ for each other’s decency and honesty? I mean come on, do we really want to hear about solidarity for Saif coming from sundry blackbuck shooters and hit-and-run-drivers with infamous anger-management issues of their own?)

     

  • In Freaking News, Ranjona Banerji reviews the fare on primetime news and in the papers

    Of Un-Saif celebs & hysterical cricket journos

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    The happiest two Indians in the world right now must be Mahender Singh Dhoni and Virender Sehwag. The alleged fracas between film star Saif Ali Khan and a South African businessman and his family has pushed the apparent rift in the Indian cricket team to second or may be even third priority in the breathless world of Indian news television. We started Wednesday debating every small eyebrow lift made by the Indian captain and examined every snort by Sehwag to try and determine whether it was derogatory or just plain bacterial.

     

    But by the middle of the day, there was some terribly plaintively hurt gentleman, Iqbal Sharma, telling us in self-righteously hurt tones how Saif and friends had beaten him and his father-in-law up at Wasabi, probably Mumbai’s most expensive and best restaurant. Sharma sported a band-aid on his nose and told us it was broken. His father-in-law said he was punched in the face with a glancing blow (or something that sounded like boxing terminology) but even my flat screen hi-definition did not catch any visible marks on his smooth cheeks. Whatever. The duo appeared on any number of TV channels (all exclusively) and repeated their story. Saif Ali Khan said nothing. But the rest of the day was spent in speculation about when he would arrive at Colaba police station, when he would be arrested, what it would mean and so on. Maybe someone even discussed what he would wear, but I missed that.

     

    This drama went on and on although meanwhile some CPM cadre were killed in West Bengal, presumably by Trinamool Congress workers and Kingfisher’s fortunes continued to dip.

     

    But nothing was as big as the imminent arrest of Saif Ali Khan. Every TV channel accepted the version given by Sharma and family. The objectivity of there being two sides to a story seemingly goes out of the window when a celebrity is involved. As for the celebrity – he or she is either the worst person in the world or the best. I’ll qualify that, if the journalist is an entertainment journalist, the celeb is the best person. If a general category journalist then the celeb is the worst. The price of fame, presumably.

     

    Sadly, when the arrest happened, it lasted only a few moments and the film star was then out on bail. This also caused outrage. But regardless of whether Saif Ali Khan is a film star or not, I would like our TV reporters to investigate the last time someone was not eligible for bail for having a little late-night fisticuffs in a restaurant. If everyone was given seven years rigorous imprisonment for this crime, we would have to build thousands of new jails.

     

    * * *

     

    Anyway, the big news of the day appears to be the resignation of Mumbai Congress chief, the controversial Kripa Shankar Singh. Not only did the Congress do miserably in the recent elections but Singh has also been charged with corruption on several counts. I thank the newspapers for this.

     

    * * *

     

    Meanwhile, Dhoni and Sehwag must still be holding their breath. Because the hysteria of sports journalists and TV commentators, when it comes to Indian cricket, knows no bounds. It is completely unrestrained by logic, rationale, practicality and other such mundane notions.

     

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    RIP Marie Colvin, veteran journalist, with the Sunday Times (London), killed in Syria.