Greenply’s ‘Janam Janam Ka Saathi’: The campaign that defined the brand

The film opens with a Punjabi couple traveling on a bus with their young son, who pleads with his father to let his mother allow him to enjoy the scenic beauty outside. Suddenly, he comes across a palatial house, and shouts in Tamil to stop the bus, which startles his parents.

As the parents follow him to the nearby house, the boy recalls it as his own and leads them inside. There, he finds a table where he had once carved his wife’s name, ‘Savithri.’ The discovery leaves his parents shocked, and his mother faints in disbelief.

Released in 2005, Greenply Plywood’s ‘Janam Janam Ka Saathi' commercial received widespread critical acclaim for its unique concept and emotional storytelling.

Genesis

Priti Nair headed Lowe Lintas, Delhi as the creative head, and was based out of Mumbai. Balki was the national creative director then. An executive from Greenply Industries approached the agency to conceptualise a campaign around Greenply.

In the 2000s, as per a blog, it was highlighted that plywood had become a commodity, and most of the customers went by the recommendations of the carpenters or store owners. Lowe Lintas decided to differentiate the brand and communication from the rest of the options in the market.

The creative team had worked on multiple ideas which were rejected by the client. It was here that Nair decided to go back to the rejected ideas, and found one among them which could be re-presented, but with some fine tuning.

In a conversation with Storyboard18, Nair shared that the agency was committed to delivering its best work to the client. At the heart of the campaign was a reincarnation-themed story, scripted by copywriter Rupesh Kashyap, featuring a ‘Tamil Sardar’—a creative narrative that underscored the plywood’s timeless durability.

Kashyap in a conversation with Storyboard18 explained, "Choka and Jaju, who were the creative directors, at Lowe Lintas, Delhi asked me if I could think on it. I wrote two scripts—the reincarnation idea was one of them. A Sikh boy speaking Tamil was my attempt to bring Indianness not through tokenism, but through emotional contradictions. The client loved it in the first meeting. It went into the long waiting room of ‘more options’ until Priti Nair brought it back to life."

I literally waited nine months to see it happen, and further explained that was Nair who played the role of a true creative director and revived its chances with conviction.

When the script was presented to the client, in Nair’s words, he was absolutely ‘floored’ and renowned ad film director Prakash Varma was roped in to shoot the ad film.

Varma was equally captivated by the script and chose to elevate it further with his creative vision and production expertise. His initial concept featured a Chinese couple whose child would unexpectedly begin speaking in Tamil, adding a surprising and memorable twist to the narrative.

Kashyap added, "I still have the original treatment note written by Prakash Varma, where he mentioned he had nothing much to add. Varma eventually brought in the fall of the Sikh boy’s mother, and the moment when she sees him remembering the name of his past love, looking at the table before the old lady finally recognises the Sikh boy as her late husband."

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The shooting commenced in Karaikudi in Tamil Nadu. One of the challenges that the creative team had was to ensure that the table with ‘Savithri’s’ carving, was far more central than the storyline.

The next challenge was managing the duration—specifically, how to convey the entire story within the stipulated time frame. The third hurdle was executing the film with exceptional quality. Since the campaign was set for a nationwide release, and featured a Sardar boy unexpectedly speaking in Tamil, Varma took special care to ensure every detail landed seamlessly across regions.

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Varma, who ran the film production house Nirvana Films, through a casting agency got a lineup of actors, from which actors were chosen for the ad film.

Varma highlighted, “There were a lot of conversations regarding improvisations happening between me and Priti Nair during the shooting process, especially how the conversation with the old lady would pan out.”

Released in 2005, the ad received a phenomenal response. It quickly gained popularity among dealers and within the brand’s network, prompting the client to take the idea a step further—he began writing letters to dealers from the character ‘Savithri’ herself.

Nearly two decades later, the ad film remains one of the most memorable in Indian advertising history. The ‘Greenply – Janam Janam Ka Saathi’ campaign even went on to inspire the 2022 Malayalam film Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam, which credited the ad with the line: “To the old advertisement that gave the seed of thought.” In doing so, Greenply continues to live up to its promise — a companion for generations.

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