Facebook came to us wanting to create one big anthemic film. As tempting as the idea may be, having been born and raised in India, one quickly realises that if you are trying to appeal to everyone, you appeal to no one because India is an incredibly diverse country. Our idea was to break that anthemic film up into 4 films that could tell a deeper story and appeal to niche audiences while talking to them in their language.
Each ad was based on a different person/combination of people I know from back home. Sandy was based on my father and his friends, Neha, a juicy combination of all my girlfriends, Heena on a teacher I once had in public school and Sunny based on every small town guy I’ve ever met with stars in his eyes. Henna and Sunny were meant to appeal to local audiences that struggle with English.
Every ad was heavily targeted. When tested, consumers were able to tell each character’s story in detail. Though this campaign did incredibly well in India when it was launched, sadly the facebook data scandal came out a couple of months after we released this campaign, so even if it did help. I doubt it saved my homeboy Marky Z from any shade.