Ad filmmakers take B'wood by storm

From writing scripts to penning lyrics to making films, ad professionals have made considerable impact in Bollywood films. So are they the next big pool for innovative films? Jaideep Sahni's script of Chak De India is now a case study at management schools. Ad filmmaker Pradip Sircar is known to have juggled shooting of Parineeta and his starry commercials. And McCann-Erickson's regional Creative Director Prasoon Joshi's lyrics have got everyone singing along.

The result: ad professionals are considered not only bankable, but also more creative. And the success of Lowe's creative chief, Balki's Cheeni Kum has confirmed it.

But if years in ad-world ensure that these filmmakers offer creative cinema, then Bollywood, too, is a learning ground for them. "We learn how to write conceptually in advertising, we don't write according to a formula," Balki explained.

While Joshi said, "What is happening is that nowadays cross fertilisation is taking place and that is a welcome change. The opening up is a good thing."

If not box office success, then innovative cinema is definitely expected to offer creative cinema like Dibakar Bannerjee's Khosla Ka Ghosla that lasted for six weeks in the multiplexes, but is regarded as a reference point in today's cinema.

"The younger crop of ad guys are all from a non-film background. They have travelled in buses, and have come up on their own. As a result they have a much larger bandwidth of experience. That's why they are able to tell them better and fresher too," Bannerjee said.

The ad world and Bollywood have always shared a cinematic connection – Satyajit Ray and Shyam Benegal, too, quit advertising, only to make classic films.

And the trend continues with Talisman, a film by award winning ad filmmaker Ram Madhvani starring the Big B and Dibakar's second Delhi-centric film with Abhay Deol.