 Ladies and gentlemen, without further delay, I would now like to invite Dr. Anurag Bhattra, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief Exchange for Media and lead our new business world to say a few words. Over to you, Dr. Anurag Bhattra. Thank you so much. You know Bhavna, you said the context. We have two stalwarts from the business and branch domain who are here. So, I would rather you flies the presence of them. Let me welcome Mr. Bharat Puri, who's the Chairman and Managing Director of PrettyLight Industries. Most consumers know PrettyLight for Felicol and many other brands and he was just telling me that he spent 17 years at Asian paint, 17 years at Cadbury's and at least hopefully 17 years at Asian paint at PrettyLight. So, one of the constant in Mr. Puri's life has been a gentleman called Mr. Piyush Pandey. Again, Mr. Pandey doesn't really need an introduction but he's the Executive Chairman of Lugilvi in India and if I have to use a use ejector body, he's the most influential admin that the last three decades have seen in the country and he continues to be relevant and help businesses build brands. So, let me dive right into the conversation by inviting both of them for a conversation. They've worked with each other for last almost 29 plus years, 30 years. In next year, it'll be 30 years of their restitution. You may have to do an event around that and television has been around for at least three decades. The brands that have been built in India have been built on the back of television and the last 13 months have made sure people spend more time on their homes and hence television viewing has gone up. The amount of time they're spending on television has gone up. Oral of the time they're spending on screens is going up. We're going to call this conference. So, let me start by asking Mr. Piyush Pandey first and then Mr. Puri by first asking them how have been the last 13 months for them personally and professionally, Mr. Pandey? Yeah, thank you and run. I think there are periods in life when you learn a lot and those are the times when your past learnings also come into play. These have been testing times. Testing times where you were not with your people and in a communications company, the physical interaction with people is very critical. But I think we managed quite nicely. I was not a Zoom guy, but now I think I'm living in Zoom Ritalaya. I have the time on the Zoom and a little time in the pool that must be Zoom Ritalaya. I think we find ways and means and learning from technology and interacting with each other. These are testing times. These are tough times. We shot a lot of stuff in ways which we had not used earlier and the industry must have done the same thing. But yes, where there's a win, there's a way and that's what has come into play and I think by and large, we have lived up to the challenge and being around and getting at it. So I would say yes, lots of learning. Zoom Ritalaya is clearly creating communication for clients and businesses that make sure that in this field of pandemic, they feel connected and they're utilizing the brand and the relationship that the consumers and brands have continued to get refreshed. Let me bring in Mr. Bharath Puri into the conversation. Mr. Puri, how have been the last 13 plus months for you both personally and professionally? Again, carrying on from where Piyush left off. I think one of the normally very misused word is unprecedented. But I think the last 13 months, we can use unprecedented and very justifiably so. And from a professional and personal level, in all of, in any adversity, there are going to be what I call the gifts of the adverse, the gifts of COVID and the pains of COVID. And both professionally and personally, you've had both. Let me always start with the negative first. The pains, a person like me, I really actually thrive by walking the floor, walking the market, being out with my people. If you ask me, what's the single biggest pain of COVID? It is the lack of what I call social capital, the ability to congregate around the coffee machine, the water cooler, walk the market, put your arm around guy say, what's going on, walk the, our campus at Pidellite. I think that, you know, outside all of the regular stuff, which is, you know, people's safety, people's security. The second wave has actually been far, far more painful than last year. So if you ask me, I thought 12 months we've got through well, this 13th month has been really painful because a lot of colleagues, their families, and, you know, we're all part of an extended family. Just managing this situation and still holding out hope to people, still trying to tell people that listen, this too shall pass has been trying. But equally, there have been the gifts, you know, while Piyush has said in Jhumri Talai, if you asked me a year back that I'm going to be such a team's man, I, you know, Microsoft teams or something which I signed the invoices when my IT teams told me now it's like, you know, part of my life, morning, evening, and night. The way I think all of us have become digitally, native, digitally empowered, the way we've actually still managed to do business sitting at home, I think it just tells us about, if I was to say at Pidellite and for me personally, the two words of the last 13 months are A, adaptability and B, resilience. You keep adapting and hopefully, you know, you keep being resilient and saying, you know, and it will. I think that in a sense can exercise in the last 12 months. I remember about 10 years back, I was having conversation with Piyush and we're talking about market research. Piyush, of course, took a dig at everybody who does market research and said, coming back to our agenda of television first, you two have worked for the last 30 years. Now, you started working on, luckily you worked on iconic brands and as you were telling me when Piyush won his first big award, he said one of the constant among all his campaigns were the three brands that you've been part of Bharat and the one person that was part of all those campaigns which became iconic and, you know, memorable and we, you know, ring in our minds and we remember them from Asian page, from Cadbury's and from Favicole. So tell me, when we talk of television first, we spend much more time in our homes. Now, has the role of communication changed? I know, of course, the role of communication is to build brands, to make sure people purchase the brand. But in how has communication on television changed in the last few months, especially people spending so much time on their mobile phones and gadgets and the screen time going up, how has communication changed? Communication has changed only in the areas where you had to be sensitive to what people are going through. At the same time, when you're selling something, communication has not changed. Communication will never change, it will always be about engaging people, it will always be about building relationships with the consumer. So communication has changed. I mean, I'll take one example, the one with not just Cadbury's ad. Now, that was in keeping with the circumstances with the small businesses feeling the pressure more than the larger ones. And there was Cadbury's actually using shops which were not selling Cadbury's and promoting them on the Cadbury's ad. So lots of people have done some good stuff out there. So taking into account the circumstances, any communication tries to take into account the circumstances. So that made this change. Other shoots, you know, I was told by, you know, I was talking to Bhavan Hirani last April about how he said, I'm shooting the ad sitting at my home. So clearly the budget for advertising films must have come down because clearly have they come down? It has impacted the budgets. All depends. When you're shooting stuff like that, if your cost is lesser, then the budget became that. If you didn't have to spend time on setting up a studio and getting big time characters where to shoot real people from home, those budgets were low. But during the time when it opened up, the big budget films also came in. It's all forces for courses. If it doesn't cost you that much, then you don't charge that much. When you want to cost you a lot, then it costs that much. So I mean, the most amazing stuff which was done very early in COVID times was the one done with Amitabh Bachchan, Mirakala Chetma, which used every big start from around the country and they were shooting in their homes. So when you're under pressure, you find ways, as Bharath said earlier, in adversity lies opportunity. And that's where you learn. So that's not that that film cost a huge amount of money, but it was a magical thing to do using so many stars and shooting from their sons were shooting them. The director was sending them stuff. So all depends to the basic point you asked me about the budget. Budgets will depend on the script, script will depend on the process of execution. Absolutely. And again, IPL is happening and during IPL, lots of new commercials break, rightly so because the audiences are hooked on to cricket. And again, there's a debate about whether IPL should happen or not happen. And there are two arguments. One is in this time of trouble, it's a happy escape. It lightens your load and life has to anyway go on. So what's your viewpoint on that? My point of view is very clear that definitely IPL must happen because that's great entertainment for people in their homes, keeps them home. And from what I've seen, what I've read, what I've gathered from my friends is that the protocol of conducting the game is wonderfully done. So the ones who are entertaining you are safe, you're home and you are safe. So I think unless something drastic happens in life and God willing it will not, it should go on. Absolutely. Now let me focus on the relationship both of you have. You work for the last 29 plus years. What has changed? The relationship has stayed constant. You continue to build big brands and you continue to do TV commercials and communication that became more than just ads. That became landmark piece of content that installed the hearts of consumers. So tell us what has changed about your relationship? How is the relationship involved? Relationship is a relationship of trust earned through your deeds with each other, with your behavior with each other, with mutual respect. And that's the way I met Bharat Puri for the first time. And that's grown and grown and we became friends very quickly and the relationship is now defined as a bond, literally so, but it was a bond always. And if something has changed, the weight of the relationship has changed because both of us have put some weight. Otherwise, nothing has changed at the heart level, will never change. Bharat, let me ask you, give us some, I mean, we can go technical about TV advertising, I don't want to give us some fun moments, some one or two anecdotes of creating the communication that you created with Piyush because really brands are the most important part of what you do. So tell us, give us one or two anecdotes about Piyush and when you both were working in. Let me first tell you, how did Piyush and me actually start working together? It's quite a story. Here I was young marketing product manager at Asian Paints, making my first campaign and the agency came, presented, we really liked the idea. The idea was celebrate with Asian Paints, which went on later for many years. Those days, advertising was very South Bombay oriented. So I told the fellows, yes, everything is fine, but from now, Asian Paints, we're going to advertise in Hindi. So I want to see this in Hindi. And believe me, the translation of celebrate with Asian Paints was, for anybody like you and me who's grown up in the Hindi heartland, I said, Bhaiya, you have no idea of Hindi. I want somebody who has spoken Hindi at home and who's grown up with. Now they'll all look very puzzled and said, no, no, we've got good, I said, no, I don't want translate. I want somebody who's grown up. And they said, we've got our copy chief. We'll send him. And that's how Piyush came. And I, you know, the moment he saw this and I told him the story, sir, hey, what are you doing in rapping? I still remember the line. He says, agya. I said, kya line hai? He said, har khushi mein rang laai Asian Paints. That went on, Anurag then for pretty much, I think about 15 years or so. Now that's the power of a great line. And that's how we got together. And then I gently told the agency So that's how we started working together. And there are so many instances. I must tell you, there's a world cup and see the Piyush Pandey ka sath no problem hai. Ek to hi veksa beri early. So aaj bhi na, pune 9 bhe jaye meri madhar kri tabi tigni to mai jaldi hota hua tha. Aur mai phone silent pralikto mein, dekhah 8.45 pralikto mein, apne pichaji se baat kar raha da, main jayat hai, khadam kia, main hain ko phone kia. To pune ji ka swiraya aaja tha, aachi baata hai to. Then your abhi to, he's, Pune now is late by his landing. Normally his ka saath, you know, in the days of landlines, wo saath bhe the landline will ring and you will groggily go to the landline. And he'll say partner idea suno. And then he will sunayu the idea. And I still remember he once, it was, he's, there was this whole merawala cream, merawala blue, merawala pink campaign in Asian paints. And he says, I've got a great idea, but uska jo set hai wo agle paanch din ke liye hai. I said, kya hai? And this was, ad was set in Pushkar, where, you know, a person likes the turban of somebody and says, merawala blue. And he said, but problem hai ke paanch din mein sab karna hai. And you know, the fascinating thing was, it was approved on the phone by lunchtime, the estimates had been signed. And in five days, the ad was made in Pushkar and it was played. So that's, you know, I mean, I came with Piyush. And we had two problems, you made that too, hai, ka problem hai ke he wakes up very early. Dhusra ye hai ke, when he gets excited by an idea, it doesn't matter where you are or this thing, ye, he will trace you down and say ke bhi abhi hi karna hai. So I still remember I was once abroad on something and you know, in the World Cup, cricket was going on. And he had, we had this beautiful thing where we, on our hoardings, we would put up all the jerseys. And as teams would lose, unka jersey would go away. And you know, the, and it would become mirawala blue, mirawala this. And then we lost to Sri Lanka. Over this thing, he, you know, over the phone, I don't know which location I was in, he said, SSI partner, I said, Piyush, if you are convinced, time convinced, let's go. And I think, again, at some late hour, the ad was approved and next day it was on. Issue one, he wakes up early. Issue two is, when he is consumed by something, until it is said to rest, he is not going to rest. Can I add something? Yes. Yeah. This mirawala blue story is, is a good story for young marketers, is what trust means. It was a print ad, Barat. Almost a half a page on Times of India, which was not cheap. And I told Barat what the idea is. Barat saw the ad in the newspaper the next morning. He had not seen the ad. I had only told him over the phone and said, that sounds good. Go ahead. You know, that's trust. And we have to trust each other. We have to put our necks on the line. And only then magic happens. And that answers your question. And that gets to how some good work happened across brands over the years, when we were working together is purely a question of if you have trust, when you place trust in a person that you believe in, believe me, that person works 10 times harder. When you give a lobby list, it's very easy to comply and deliver. When somebody says, I will go with you. It's not that I work in the list. I worked 10 times harder. Because somebody has said, I believe in you. So that's the learning which will come handy to the young people on this webinar. And I'm not saying the trust comes on day one. We succeed together. We demonstrate faith in each other and that builds and builds and then you can play shots that you never thought you were capable of doing. Absolutely. What would you like to add to this? Yes, and you know, Anurag in all of this, I think the key, you know, all of us are into, you know, we must have the right inspirational brand positioning and you must have a tight creative brief. But finally, all advertising is created by a team which has a common purpose and a common passion. And two out of 10 times, you will also get it wrong. The thing is to hold hands, take it on the chin and move on. But the eight out of 10 times that you get it right, more than makeup for it, all of that, you know, 10 times over. And the wonderful thing over time is when it becomes one team, I mean, it's fascinating. And now in our team, there is also, you know, Piyush's brother Prasoon, who's the filmmaker. And a lot of times between the two of them, they will reject ideas before they even come to you. So, you know, the fascinating thing is, there is a marketing come creative agency first working in the agency before it comes to the client. I mean, can you imagine the multiplier it gives you? And it's like, you know, for example, you see this famous Fevicol sofa, which got talked about so much last year, it became probably the most shared ad of last year. The fascinating thing was, first, you know, Prasoon was thinking it's a little long, it's good for the radio. And we said, the idea is so powerful, no, we have to make it as a film. And, you know, in today's digital world, Anurag, everybody says people have low attention spans, you can't make more than 20 seconds. This 90 second ad was one of the most shared, I mean, it's fascinating. I've been to so many forums and the moment I asked people how many have seen the ad, all the heads go up and everybody has seen it because somebody shared it with them. And that's the power of great communication. So I think, you know, the usual words of trust, respect for each other's opinion, and most importantly, being able to take it, take the success and the failure together, holding hands without any finger pointing, you know, basic bedrock of a strong relationship. Very good. Clearly, of course, it has you rightly said, right up front, it comes through behavior, it comes through experience behavior, it comes through what you achieve together. And clearly, usual, the whole of a grand custodian, if I may use that word, as much as the company. Let me ask you, the last 30 days, especially last three weeks, have been very tough for all of us. Somebody in our office is facing a loss, somebody in our neighborhood is facing a loss. What's happened around us impacts us. What keeps you going in these tough times? Yeah, I think the only thing that keeps you going is that it's almost like, can you hear me? When there is trouble around you, when there's tragedy around you, when there's difficulty around you, the thing for you to do is to keep your chin up and reach out to those in trouble, see how you can help. Sometimes your help may not be physical, but you help talking to people. Can you just express to that person that I am there with you? Be strong, keep hanging on. So what keeps you going is that that person is down. So what can I do to chip in for him? And that's what's kept me on. So I'm not that I ever had a problem with that. You have to write a poster. I'll write the poster for you. You will write a poster. I say, I love writing posters. That's not a problem. So we chip in for each other. It's it's particularly in difficult times. Somebody's must be what building is fit, but his mother is down and you got to be sensitive to that. So it's that's where a good team helps when you know the value of a hurry and you know the value of little bits and pieces that you do for each other. So being the captain of the team, I can't be down and out as long as my body is not giving me trouble. I have no pain. If I am an early riser of six o'clock, there's no harm, there's no damage if I wake up at four o'clock and there's no damage if you sleep at one dirty. So keep at it and it's not just me. My team has given me that kind of a feeling. Each one is doing so much that you cannot say that you can't be a part of the effort. So that's what keeps me going and it's going because this battle is ahead of us and we've got to keep fighting on. Absolutely. And like you said, yes, we will cross the barrier some day, we'll then hang in there. I agree there's small acts of kindness, just being able to make time, just being sensitive and as you rightly said, if you're the captain of the ship, as long as you're physically able to do it, you'll be able to be there to guide others, just to hear them out, to share their load if need be and accept them as the way they are in this tough situation when everyone deals with it in a unique way. So accepting them in their uniqueness possibly is a great way of being. Bharat, again, you're the very large organization and especially the salespeople. The two used to going out, going to the stores. So overall, I know construction activities down and so on and so forth. But how are you keeping the morale of your teams up and what is your message of hope for people who are, it's impacting our minds, it's impacting us because it's impacting people around us. What do we do in these tough times? I think basically you do three things, Anurag. Starting first and foremost is you put all measures in place to put safety and security of people first. So in my factories that are working, we are doing weekly testing of everybody, irrespective of symptoms, simply because we want to keep the environment safe. Across all the simple message to all managers in the company is your team is your responsibility. We will only ask them to do what we are willing to do ourselves. And this is the time we all have to hold hands. We have a COVID helpline which is 24 by 7 in the company. Anybody or his family has any COVID related problems, they call the helpline. We will try our best. It's not that all the times we succeed, somebody wants a hospital bed, somebody is struggling for oxygen. A lot of times there are doctors on call, we have a full doctor on call service. People must feel that right now that they have an extended family and that extended family is the pedilac family. The second thing is, along with safety and security, the business continuity. How do you ensure business continuity therefore reaching out to customers, reaching out to your influencers. I mean, you know, simple thing we did with our carpenters, we realized that as their incomes are going down the carpenter, the water proofer, we actually did a deal with PTM and converted all of their loyalty points into money and said, guys, you're not going to earn money here. You just go and withdraw and keep your houses going. I mean, this is what a responsible company must do. In and around all of our factories, we went to the district administrations and said, whatever you need, you need money for getting oxygen in place, you need money for vaccinations, you need money for sanitizing. We are there as a, right now in this area, we want to be part of the community. So there's a safety and security piece. There is the business continuity piece. And then it is also planning for the future. I mean, as, you know, as a corporate, I have to also keep saying that, listen, how is this situation going to change? Therefore, how do I have to equip myself? So there will be winners and losers in any situation. How do me and my team be part of the winners rather than, you know, be fellows who watched it all happen? And then there are a whole set of measures around that. So it's a trying time. But as you say, if you're holding hands and saying that, listen, this is happening to all of us, some are more fortunate than the others have gratitude in whatever you are doing and hold hands and, you know, let's we'll cross this storm together. Absolutely. You know, I have both of you and I don't want to let you go so soon, but I'll have to. So let me ask you my last question to both of you. As you see communication and with digital becoming bigger and bigger, and not necessarily, it's at the cost of television time, because we all have spent so much time on television. And at the end of the day, we are consuming the television on our devices. I watch a certain show on every Sunday evening. And since I was at my parents' home on Sunday evening, I watched that show on a handheld device. You know, so I don't know what is television and what is the internet, the lines are kind of blurry. And so I want to ask a prediction from both of you for communication and people who are creating communication and who are building brands, seeing into the next 12 to 15 months. I'm not asking like long term. What are your top two, three predictions? First, Piyush Pandey and then Bharat. See, there's one thing very clear in my mind that Anurag Gupta, when he's Bhattara, when he is at home, needs good entertainment. When Anurag Bhattara is out in his car, he needs good entertainment. He's not gone out of the house to say, on my mobile, I accept any bullshit. So digital is a part of our life, but being on that medium is not good enough. Be between great with the medium so that I can engage and entertain Anurag. While he's not in his house, not in front of his TV, I should be able to make an equal impact on him. So this rush to I'm on digital is not good enough. Am I great on digital? Is perhaps the business will realize the business will, you'll see better advertising on digital. Today, the best advertising on digital is only making your TV ads available on digital. No, you have to create for digital. You have to delight people through digital. You have to make a brand impact through digital. So yes, digital is here to stay. But unlike other places, TV is going to be here much, much longer. If not for a very, very long time, digital will coexist. There'll be same people will be watching both. So just make sure that you do not fall short, just because the device in his hand is slightly smaller. The heart is equally big while receiving. Beautifully put. Bharat, your final words. See, I have just two things to say. A, the essence of all good stroke, great communication will never change. All good great communication rewards the viewer or the reader as the case may be for their time. And does it in a context that context is a constantly changing context. And all of us know that. And really, therefore, I mean, you were asking about IPL, it's wonderful that the IPL is on, but it's sad to see, you know, bluntly put quality of a lot of the advertising on IPL. It seems to be all made very hurriedly and consume, you know, the time as quickly because it's a limited time frame. And you remember Dhoni and you remember Ranveer Singh, but I don't remember many of the ads. Really, therefore, my message first is nothing takes away from great content and great thinking. I mean, the lyrics, people are reading the lyrics and saying all my lines are there. The ad is made. It can't be the Ghana has to make sense. The second thing is digital is is a reality. I mean, what the last 12, 13 months has done is it has given digital a five year leap in one year. And therefore, you know, in my view of thinking finally as a marketer, my job is to communicate and change behavior of consumers, wherever that consumer maybe the device is going to get smaller. I don't believe the attention span or the ability to entertain is going to change. But wherever the consumer is in the environment she is in, we will have to make sure that we reward her for a time. And if you do, she will share it. She will celebrate it and she will buy your product. Thank you so much, Bharat. We could go on. I'm enjoying talking to you. But we have to move on. So thank you for making time. Thank you for being who you are. Thank you for saying what you said and saying it with so much conviction. And again, I want to say to all the viewers and people that these are two individuals who over the last three decades have continued to stay relevant. And even as we speak to them, they lead large organizations, they have a huge influence. So what they are saying is reality. Please embrace it. I'm sure you learned something that either reinforce what you knew or at least brought a new perspective to that. So my gratitude to Piyush Pandey and Bharat Puri. Thank you so much. And next year we'll complete 30 years. We must do something around it. You know. What is wrong? It's 36 years. 36? But we've been doing this for 35 years. I stand corrected. For some reason, from my knowledge, I thought it was 29 years. But I stand corrected. It's 36 years. Clearly they are younger. See, that is also Anurag because both of us started working at the age of 14. When I grow up, I definitely want to be like one of you. By the end of the day, I'll figure out who I want to be like when I grow up, but maybe a bit of both of you. So, but thank you, my sincere gratitude. God bless you. Stay safe and continue to lead people and inspire people as you are. Thank you so much. Back to you. And to you Anurag and all your webinar attendees, please stay safe. God bless you all. Thank you so much. Stay well and stay strong. And thank you so much, Anurag. Thank you, Bharat. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. Puri. Thank you, Mr. Pali, for joining us today and being a part of this great summit. Thank you once again.