Long before the fill it, shut it, forget it generation took root, India rode on mopeds. The 60cc two-wheeler was a very convenient and low cost maintenance vehicle used across the socio-economic spectrum. It was launched in 1972 by Kinetic Engineering Limited to attract the middle class consumer. Attractively designed, it had features like a device to switch over to pedalling, reminding the driver of the evolution of the two wheeler. With a large enough fuel tank and strong chassis, it soon became popular in the countryside as well, where petrol pumps were at a fair distance and where the farmer was used to carrying animal fodder on his vehicle. In the city it was a symbol of urban mobility where the company projected it as the teenager’s first step into the big world. In its own way it was aspirational too. Many won’t believe it but there was a time when a Luna was given as a Man of the Match award in domestic cricket competitions.
In the mid-’80s, the company came up with a series of ads, with the punchline ‘ chal meri Luna ’ to reignite interest in the two-wheeler. Ram Murari, Ravi Kumar and Radha — a government servant, a businessman and a medical student — were characterised to represent a cross section of society trying to make the most of their busy lives, and the answer was of course the Luna. The ad was conceptualised by Piyush Pandey, an emerging star at that time at Oglivy & Mather and was directed by Dilip Ghosh, an ace ad filmmaker who along with Pandey is credited with bringing the local ethos to Indian ad films. And who can forget Ravi Kumar? The cotton merchant was played by Raj Kumar Hirani, who was known as an editor of ad films then.
Becoming nostalgic, Ghosh says it was among the first commercials that made use of not just vernacular language but also had a very local theme. “Till then our advertising was westernised in its thought process and execution. Raju Hirani, Piyush Pandey and I emerged almost at the same time and we wanted our commercials to speak our language and draw from local issues. Instead of selling an aspirational dream world we wanted to offer the consumer a slice of life with all the kinetic energy that an A-grade commercial demands. It is something Hirani’s films reflect now.”
Pandey and his creative team drew inspiration from “Chal Mere Ghore Tick Tick” from Chirag Kahan, Roshni Kahan and came up with a jingle which Ghosh felt was colloquially dynamic. “It was dubbed into many regional languages and worked well.”
On casting Hirani, Ghosh says he used to edit his ad films. “We felt that his face reflected the innocence and vulnerability of the common man and the fact that he himself came from a small town and had experience in theatre helped in making him understand. We wanted to show him as a 40-45-year-old. So we gave him a safari suit and dyed his sideburns. He became quite popular after that and we did many films together, including Fevicol and Vardhman yarns.”
Luna was the first ad to emerge from this team and it was immediately lapped up. “In those days there was no formal format to measure the audience reaction but we got great response from not just award juries but also from the janta . O&M used to get handwritten letters of appreciation,” reflects Ghosh, who has turned to direction with Commando . But everything was not smooth for Ravi Kumar. “The client had reservations about the look of the commercial. He didn’t want to make the product appear downmarket. I told him downmarket is just a thought process. We are going to present a slice of life with the best production values available. It is like (the way) Mani Ratnam raises very local Tamil issues but presents them in a way that the whole world can identify with them,” reflects Ghosh.
The biggest challenge, says Ghosh, was to shoot in public in Mumbai’s busy cotton market. “In those days it was not easy to hide cameras in public.” Shot on 35mm, the film required Ghosh to place reflectors to control the sunlight. “It was a tough task. Then we needed to mount the camera on the moped itself to capture the facial expressions of Raju. It was not a common feature in those days, and the company which lent the camera wanted us to fill a surety bond in case some mishap happened. Being a trained director from FTII, I had confidence and we sailed through.”
Rajkumar Hirani on acting in commercials
“ Yeh hain Mr. Ravi Kumar kaam hain inke chaltey chaar ….” Hirani still remembers the lines and recites them when one requests him to rewind to the ad that first brought him into the spotlight. “I had ridden on the Luna in Nagpur and knew what the brand stood for. At times, we used to steal the mopeds of friends parked outside marriage halls to have a free ride and then park them back.” Hirani says he used to do theatre in Nagpur before joining FTII for an editing course. “In the institute films, students used to cast their classmates. I was cast a lot because I had a background in theatre. When I came to Bombay and started editing, some colleagues saw my diploma films. I was cast by Piyush Pandey. He was the in-charge and his wife Veena Bakshi was handling production. She had seen my work. So I did it. I must have been 25-26 then, but I was made to play a 40-year-old in the film. It was more of a friendly thing with Dilip.” They went on to do Fevicol and Vardhaman dhage , the film that made Hirani realise his limitations with acting. “Dilip fell ill and he asked me to take the film to the client in Delhi. The client didn’t know that I have acted in the film. When he watched the film the light was dim and I was sitting in a corner. He watched it four-five timed and said, yeh film to theek hai par ye model kaun hai. Yeh kiski choice hai. Yeh nahin chalega . And as he turned, I was standing behind him. That day I learnt I should stop acting.” Good he did!
