“Piyush Pandey gave brands a voice like no other,” says Suhel Seth in tribute
Suhel Seth pays tribute to the legendary adman, celebrating his creativity, integrity, and enduring impact on brands and people alike.
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By Suhel Seth
Piyush Pandey was not just an advertising mind. He was not just a fine cricketer. He was not just an adoring husband. He was not just a brilliant colleague. He was not just an inspiring force. He was just Piyush Pandey. When you talked to him, when you worked with him, and when you dealt with him, you knew you were not only dealing with a superior mind, but with a superior heart. Everything about him was open.
Everything about him was unforgiving. Everything about him was placid, serene, and yet brimming with energy. I first met Piyush in 1990 when I just joined Ogilvy in Calcutta as a-Piyush Pandey was not just an advertising mind. He was not just a fine cricketer. He was not just an adoring husband. He was not just a brilliant colleague. He was not just an inspiring force. He was just Piyush Pandey. When you talked to him, when you worked with him, and when you dealt with him, you knew you were not only dealing with a superior mind, but with a superior heart. Everything about him was open.
I first met Piyush Pandey in 1990, when I just joined Ogilvy in Kolkata. And Piyush was the rising creative star in Ogilvy in Bombay, working under yet another genius, Suresh Malik. But it wasn't Piyush's unreal creative energy that was inspirational. It was his zest for life. It was his attitude towards any colleague, junior or senior. And more importantly, his unwavering loyalty and commitment towards his clients.
And they weren't his clients, they were the clients of the firm, but yet each client believed that Piyush was family, and Piyush believed that clients were his family. I remember the relationship he shared and shared till the very end with people like Bharat Puri, people like Madhukar Parekh, his erstwhile cricketing colleague, Arun Lal. This was his universe. His universe was surrounded with so much of dignity and beauty.
And the fact that Nita and he made one of the most adorable couples was the icing on the cake. I have so many stories to tell you about Piyush, but the word count will not permit me to. Let me begin with some anecdotal stuff. I remember Ogilvy in Kolkata was pitching for the Tata Steel business, but before that we had to do something for J.V. Raghavan. At that time, the additional Director of Marketing, under B. Muthurman and we had to first prove our credentials by working on a golf tournament. And even in a simple golf tournament, the creative energy that Piyush brought to the party was admirable.
We then pitched (and I led the pitch) for Tata Steel’s advertising business. But before that, Aditya Kashyap and Russi Modi asked us to work on the Tata Cement business, which we did. And the work that Piyush did was beyond imagination, and I still remember Mr. Modi asking us to present the film in the Tata Steel general office auditorium, and when the film finished, everyone got up and hugged Piyush because that was his genius.
We then got the Tata Steel business. Russi Modi and Aditya Kashyap became my lifelong friends, and I saw in them the enormous respect they had for Piyush. In one of the incidents related to the Tata Cement business, the film that Piyush had made was to be presented to the Ogilvy Governing Council, or whatever it was called then. And Piyush and I went into the conference room in Ogilvy Bombay and showed the film.
In those days you showed the film on a beta tape, and Roda Mehta was a conscientious objector for reasons that I still find difficult to fathom. And Piyush threw the tape across the table in a very gentle way and said that "I'll have nothing to do with this brand if you people don't understand what I'm saying." And he and I then walked across to the Ritz Hotel and drank from 11:00 AM till about 11:00 PM, at which time Mr. Mani Aiyer, who was then the MD of Ogilvy, came and placated us.
But it was not in order to be placated that we were there. We were there to sound the alarm bells that creative cannot be run only through the prism of research, and this is what was the leitmotif of Piyush Pandey's brilliance. He never used research either as a crutch or validation. He understood the Indian consumer. He understood Indian insights, but most importantly, he understood Indianness. When he and Suresh Malik crafted "Mile Sur Mera Tumhara", it was unimaginable that a song which was played on Doordarshan would seize the love, the imagination, and the belief of every Indian at that time.
But that was his power. His magical powers were later unleashed in Asian Paint's continuing elegant campaign of "Har Ghar Kuch Kehta Hai". The work that he did with Cadbury's when the girl sees her boyfriend score a six and then dances onto the field. His relationships with Mr. Bachchan, his relationships within Bollywood, without becoming a lyricist, his relationships with people were relationships built out of affection, inspiration, imagination, and respect.
When my wife and I decided to make Goa a home of sorts, I remember that the only couple that we used to love meeting from our business were Piyush and Nita. I still remember one evening when the gods must have smiled, because we had in our home in Goa, Mohammed Khan, his wife, Piyush and Nita, and Lakshmi and I. It was a stellar evening, an evening where we recounted the glory of Indian advertising and the importance of understanding and continuing to understand the evolving Indian cultural milieu.
But that was Piyush's power. His power came from the fact that he loved and enjoyed his family first, and each one of those family members is brilliant beyond excellence. Today, when Piyush is no longer amidst us, we can take succor from the fact that his work will continue to live on. The brands that he worked on will continue to delight Indian consumers. The work that he did pro bono is something that you and I can never imagine.
Many years ago, on a particular project, the Government of India contacted Piyush and I and asked us to do something related to Brand India, and even there, when both of us knew that it was pro bono, it was for the country, and it wasn't for a political party or for a government, we had to do it. And the diligence, the commitment, the hard work that Piyush put in was something not just admirable but what people should follow in their daily lives.
I'm not sad today. I'm actually devastated. Devastated because we needed a Piyush Pandey for as long as possible so that the young in advertising realize the power of creativity, the power of integrity, and the power of understanding Indianness, because ultimately, consumers don't buy brands, they buy benefits. And now that Piyush will migrate to the heavens above, we will see the heavens dance to his delightful, anecdotal, conversational tonality.
He was a raconteur par excellence, a supporter of people like you can never imagine, but above all, a true gentleman.
In fact, he may have left cricket but cricket never left him. He always played with a straight bat and he never ducked.
Travel well, my dear friend. May God bless you and may God bless Nita and the amazing work she does with animals who are voiceless.
Piyush Pandey gave brands a voice that will ring loud and clear with the emotions that you and I can't ever imagine.
Suhel Seth is a businessman and columnist
