The cigarette they never quit: R. Balki on his bond with Adman Piyush Pandey

Renowned filmmaker and ad veteran R. Balki paid an emotional tribute to Piyush Pandey, recalling their decades-long friendship, creative camaraderie and the deep impact Pandey left on the advertising industry. Speaking at a gathering to celebrate the late adman Piyush Pandey, Balki’s anecdotes were heartfelt, funny and profoundly human — painting a vivid picture of the man behind India’s most iconic ads.

Balki began with a personal story that reflected the unique bond he shared with Piyush. “One of the many things we bonded over was trying to quit smoking,” he said with a smile. The two even visited a hypnotherapist together, “smoking our last cigarettes just before the session.” While Balki managed to quit for three months, Piyush lasted sixteen days. “For sixteen days, he called me every day to ask if I’d smoked. On the sixteenth day, the call didn’t come. That’s when I knew he had,” he laughed.

Despite their failed first attempt, the two kept trying and teasing each other along the way. “We didn’t talk for 16 days straight after that session, which was the longest we’d ever gone without speaking. On the 16th day, he called and asked, ‘You still at it?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ A few months later, I broke it. He lasted 16 days, I lasted three months,” Balki said with a smile.

He added that Piyush would often jokingly accuse him of being the reason he started smoking again. “Every time he quit, he’d blame me for making him smoke,” Balki recalled fondly.

Behind the humour, Balki’s words carried deep affection. “I’ve never worked with Piyush, but I think I’ve worked more with him than most people,” he said. “When you truly understand what makes someone tick, you just get that person completely.”

Recounting the day he heard of Pandey’s passing, Balki said he went back to the same bar where they had shared their last drink together. “I sat at the same table, ordered the same five whiskeys, and told myself I was having a drink with Piyush,” he said.

Balki reflected on Pandey’s rare ability to bring advertising back into cultural focus. “He made advertising cool again. At a time when the business had become uninteresting and nostalgic, he cracked the biggest campaign of his life to make the world talk about advertising again,” Balki said. “No amount of jargon or confusion can take that away now. People are looking at him and saying 'this' was advertising.”

For Balki, Piyush Pandey’s greatest legacy goes beyond iconic campaigns. “He’s woken up the world again to our business,” he said. “If every creative person today asked themselves, ‘Would this make Piyush proud?’, advertising would change forever.” In the end, Balki summed up their bond simply, “We were both foolish people but we had fun. And that’s what I’ll always remember about him.”

“He was the kind of person who’d argue with you, laugh with you, and still be the one you called when you needed to talk,” Balki said. “Even after he passed, I went to the same bar where we last drank, sat at the same table, and told myself I was having a drink with him again.”