Asian Paints' new TVC fights inflationary mindset

Asian Paints has launched a new campaign to position itself as a smart choice against inflation. The campaign has been designed by Contract Advertising. The creative team includes Manish Bhatt and Raghu Bhat. The film has been directed by Shoojit Sircar of Rising Sun Films and is expected to break sometime today.

The film opens to a scene of a groom seated on a horse for his wedding. However, closer inspection of the horse reveals that it is in fact, two men under a white sheet pretending to be a horse. Two men (Vijay Raaz and Atul Kulkarni) dressed in black suits are present for the wedding, Raaz is surprised, wondering why have they used a false horse? Kulkarni tells him, that since it is a budget wedding, they have done without a real horse. In the next scene, Kulkarni again reveals that due to budget constraints, snake charmers have been hired as musicians, instead of shehnai players. Again, in the third situation, the couple is shown to get married with the help of mantras played on a tape recorder, instead of a pandit, to save money. In the last situation, the men are walking around in the house of the groom, and Raaz is surprised that the house has been done up in expensive paint. Kulkarni replies, that since the paint is Tractor Emulsion, it just looks expensive, but isn't.

Manish Bhatt, senior VP and ECD says, "Painting is a major expense during this time of the year. We wanted to show that Asian Paints just looks expensive. However, as the quantity used is less as compared to other paint brands, it is value for money. This is portrayed as a point of view of the observers: Atul Kulkarni and Vijay Raaz."

Raghu Bhat, senior VP and ECD adds, "This is an interesting casting as we have roped in two theatre actors instead of the usual run-of-the-mill Bollywood celebrities. While Kulkarni is the good guy, Raaz doubts everything. The characters have been created in a way such that Kulkarni's character plays a perfect foil to Raaz's doubting cynical character."