From Kolkata’s colonial hangover to the rise of brand Bharat, this reflection, by Monojit Lahiri, celebrates Piyush Pandey — the man who gave Indian advertising its heart, its Hindi, and its humanity, forever transforming the industry’s language and soul. 

A tribute to Piyush Pandey, Indian advertising’s most iconic creative mind, this piece by Monojit Lahiri traces the evolution of the industry from elitist English dominance to proudly vernacular storytelling. It highlights how Pandey’s emotional intelligence, humour, and deep understanding of India’s linguistic diversity transformed communication, mentored generations of ad creators, and made “brand Bharat” a reality. A reflection on language, leadership, and legacy — this is the story of a man who redefined the very voice of India’s advertising. 

The Early Days: Language, Legacy, and the Colonial Hangover

From “Thank God you’re not one of those small-town, vernacular types, dear boy” to “Oye angrez, Hindi aati hai?” - we’ve indeed come a long way baby! But to start from the beginning, it was a completely different planet, the India and the Kolkata of the early seventies and a totally different ad space too.

Fresh out of college (St. Xavier’s Kolkata, with English Honours), I had three choices staring at me menacingly - journalism, academics and advertising. The first was tempting because I loved and enjoyed writing and was a regular contributor to (the now defunct) JS, as well as some other colour supplements. The second was scary as hell - couldn’t ever see myself doing M.A., going to a university and returning to teach students, mostly bored as hell, the beauty, meaning and value of the English language!

The third was hands-down hot! It promised leveraging of language in an unusual setting and excitement of an informal and unconventional nature in the workplace. My (late) Dad, (Sanat Lahiri) who was a huge name in the communication industry of that time was delighted that I was coming into this line of work, but quite put off by the reason!

However, entering the portals of the city, and India’s largest agency JWT (then HTA), I remember feeling, by turn, excited, nervous, apprehensive. The first two because HTA Kolkata was a prized branch with most of the hi-ticket (ITC, Brooke Bond, Union Carbide, HMV, Nestle, Metal Box, to name some) accounts in its bag, stupendous billing, solidly effective work and led by a truly iconic leader, Subhash Ghoshal.

Apprehensive because of my sudden feeling of paralyzing inadequacy - would I be able to bridge the impossibly bizarre gap between Shakespeare and Shelley, Dickens, Lamb and Shaw, Donne and Swinburne, and somewhat un-literary lines like ‘Just for fun, chew some gum, Chiclet’?

Looking back, those early days were tough, confusing and difficult. Advertising and writing were not about beautiful language but tapping, inventing and creating word-pictures that link the brand to the consumer in an engaging and interesting way. Luckily, I soon got the hang of it and was thrilled when my hotshot copy chief ‘Okayed’ my first ad. “Yup, you’re getting the drift, lad. Good. Now, run down and get your masterpiece translated in Hindi, okay? There’s this shabby-looking, pan-chewing, pyjama-kurta clad bozo sitting at a desk next to the staircase. That's where he deserves to be. You can’t miss him son, he’s one in a million!” Loud guffaw.

The Great Shift: From Elitist Anglicization To Bharat Connect

Cut to 2009, I am into this big discussion of how creativity in advertising is shifting lanes with a brilliant and successful, hi-profile creative hotshot. I am waxing eloquent about this outstanding writer, creator of some brilliant campaigns, winner of BEST COPYWRITER OF THE YEAR a zillion times, when my friend gently clears his throat and asks about his present status. I am about to say that he’s moved out of the big league with his art partner to start his own outfit and is doing very well, when my friend with a wicked smile moves in. “Sub manta hoon huzoor, lekin waqt waqt ki baat hai. The reason for his fadeout was simple. Bhaisaab ko Hindi nahi aati thi, boss!” Laughter.

Prasoon Joshi wasn’t being conceited, sarcastic or smart-assed. He was (in his own witty way) hitting the button, spot-on. I should know. Back then in the seventies, there definitely (as indicated earlier) existed a huge colonial hangover, which spawned an indisputable “Caste system”. Multinationals boomed and defined the culture, environment and ambience of the times. English was the preferred and desired Lingua Franca of ad-land and everything else was perceived as down-market and Vernac!

The ruling and dazzling ad stars of those days, Alyque Padamsee, Gerson Da Cunha, Sylvie Da Cinha, Kersey Katra, Mohammed Khan, Frank Simoes, Nargis Wadia to name a few, fitted seamlessly into that rarefied (elitist?) clique. Everybody else was not quite there.

Western music, English ‘theatah’, clubs, parties, avantgarde cinema, poetry-reading sessions – it was pretty much like a private club where trespassers (at best) could be tolerated but seldom accepted. It might come as a shock to today’s kids to know that even the likes of Piyush Pandey and Prasoon Joshi had to cool their heels for a considerable period before getting their due. Why? Simple. They just didn’t ‘belong’!

It was the 21” Idiot Box that really marked the first ground-breaking change in structure, mind-set, pecking order and hierarchy.

Suddenly the way communication was conceived, presented and consumed underwent a seismic change.

On cue, the ad world (forever watching and tracking) got ready to change gears, switch lanes and hit the gas pedal. They noticed the stirring and enthusiastic reception of an audience (read: potential consumer) base, well beyond the traditional metro centres, with interest.

However, to connect with this constituency, one needed a different sensibility in terms of language and nuance, a continent away from the urban, suited-booted variety, residing at South Bombay, Chowringhee and Connaught Place.

The Rise Of Pandeymonium: Brand Bharat’s True Voice

Could the ruling ‘saab-brigade’ be able to rise and accept the challenge?

And this is exactly where and when seeds sown by erstwhile, unsung and unremembered visionaries like Kamlesh Pandey and Suresh Mallik, among others, started to flower and bloom. While the ‘Koi Hai?’ schools of advertising weren’t hurled into exile, advantage Bharat came into being, threatening fresh momentum each day! This wasn’t a fad but dictated clearly by the new market forces that spawned a brand-new consumer universe - confident, comfortable in their ‘vernac’ skin and refusing to be bullied into being forced to worship everything ‘angrez’; cash-rich, ready to turn consumer but on their own terms and through communication, language, idiom and metaphors of their choice.

Enter Ogilvy’s Piyush Pandey who spearheaded the industry’s response to this cataclysmic change - he was also a ‘language Copy Chief’, Hindi copywriters were dismissively and condescendingly referred to as that. Promoted to CD and later NCD, Pandey with CEO Ranjan Kapur soon formed a formidable duo that was to change the face of advertising in India. Kapur believes that it was his creative partner “who gave the Hindi language the pride of place it deserved and forever banished the Anglicized, South Bombay brand of effete advertising.”

Along the way, he made two outstanding contributions – celebrated ‘emotion’ as the ‘real’ core of advertising and moved ‘language copy’ from eek to wow – from the backroom to the front office!”

Pandey was a great, disciplined, caring, responsible and hands-on leader who mentored a galaxy of creative hotties burning up today’s adbiz - Sonal Dabral, Prasoon Joshi, Bobby Pawar, Pushpinder Singh, Josy Paul, Abhinay Deo, Sagar Mahabeleshwarkar, Kamal Basu, Mahesh Chauhan, Satbir Singh - the list is endless. He was also largely instrumental in “nationalizing” Indian advertising. Josy Paul believes he made it more personal and “replaced the voice of god with the sound of humanity.”

Paul is right. Piyush Pandey’s greatest contribution was that he humanized advertising, demonstrating consistently, brilliantly and successfully, subjective value to objective worth. This he did by decoding/simplifying/translating the consumer proposition in a way that connected in a universally comprehensible fashion to his target group so that it engaged, entertained and empowered in one fell swoop.

Pandey showed that the world and life didn’t start and end at Nariman Point, Chowringhee, Mount Road or Connaught Place. Matheran, Burdwan, Kottyam and Bhatinda also figured in the frame with solid purchasing power but low language and sensibilities connect to the colonial sahibs, domineering, patronizing and condescending as hell to these vernac types.

So, leveraging the waste to wealth formula, Pandey explored and embraced this large and potentially rich consumer community by speaking in their own language through words, visuals and disarming humour that changed the face of Indian communication forever. Powered with passion and purpose he championed brand Bharat and the Indian reality as no one else did before him and became a true pathbreaker.

That was Piyush Pandey. When comes such another…