Sulekha.com revives the ancient art of Patta Chitra Katha

Sulekha.com has launched a new integrated campaign 'Aaj ka Arjun' which uses the art of Patta Chitra Katha (a traditional folk art of storytelling featuring illustrations of characters from Indian mythology, hand printed on sun dried leaves). The campaign has been designed by JWT.

The campaign includes a two minute film was initially soft launched on social networking sites and blog. The media mix consists of TV, digital, a microsite that will feature free downloads of the short films, wallpapers, screensavers, ringtones, comic strips and an invitation to blog about Patta Chitra Katha on Sulekha.com. There will also be a Patta Chitra Katha Reservoir on the site.

B Sridhar, director- global branding and marketing, Sulekha.com says, "We have always grappled with the conventional thought process which tags classifieds and yellow pages as humdrum; we wanted to challenge that very notion. The new TVC puts the focus on content and disrupts the traditional orientation. The animation clearly reflects Sulekha.com's brand promise while showcasing our pioneering position of reinventing the category."

The film shows Arjuna getting whatever he wants with shooting of arrows into the sky. Everything he needs is dropped miraculously and in the end, it is revealed that the arrows were not pointed at the sky, but at Sulekha.com. "The arrow represents the cursor of the mouse – as soon as you click on the mouse, you get an instant response. Thus, the arrow in the ad indicates that you are reaching the right target for a quick delivery or response when you click on Sulekha.com," Sridhar adds.

"Arjuna, the mythological archer, adorns the first ever handmade version of The Great Indian Yellow Pages, in a vivid story that simplifies online yellow pages and encourages online transactions through the life of Arjuna in 2008 AD," says Senthil Kumar, ECD, JWT.

The executive creative director and copywriter is Senthil Kumar. The art directors are Karthik Sekhar and Jeff Emmanuel. The production house is Famous House of Animation and the film is directed by E. Suresh. The music director is Jolly Joseph. The film has been illustrated by artists from Orissa and animated by Famous Animation Team. 4320 leaves were hand crafted in the making of this film.