Amitabh Bachchan channels his angry young man persona to wreak havoc at upGrad

UpGrad has rolled out a campaign featuring actor Amitabh Bachchan to spread awareness on its course pricing structure and offerings for those wanting a career outside of India. 

 

Conceptualised by The Womb, the film showcases Bachchan in his angry young man character wreaking havoc at the upGrad headquarters.

 

Bachchan enters the upGrad office with a baseball bat in tow and breaks the entry door glass so he can pass through. He then moves on to crashing the employees' desks, throws away their work desk materials, flings chairs, pours coffee over a desktop keyboard, and lands on an oblivious employee working away with his headphones silencing the chaos around him. When asked by the employee about why he’s so angry, he says that he wished the abroad program by upGrad was around when he was young. Another employee listening in on the reasoning Bachchan gives for his temper tells him he can study abroad at his age without any issues. The film aims to reassure parents and young aspirants that learning opportunities from globally recognised institutions need not be limited by societal or financial constraints anymore. 

 

Arjun Mohan, CEO - India, upGrad, said, “It’s that time of the year when school students are pursuing their higher secondary examinations and parents are evaluating whether or not send their children abroad to pursue higher education. While our recently launched upGrad Abroad vertical is a breakthrough, we realised that the bigger challenge is to first reach out to the relevant target audience and create maximum visibility for them to be able to make an informed decision. In this regard, it was extremely critical for us to understand the market sentiment and then make a strong marketing move. That’s when the decision of joining hands with Bachchan to further our upGrad Abroad mission, came to life. Bachchan's on-screen persona and charm will undoubtedly make heads turn and leave a lasting impact on the audience, thus hitting the bull’s eye.”

 

Suyash Khabya, creative head, The Womb, said, “Over decades, the world has seen Bachchan on 70mm, KBC on TV and in numerous ads. So, how do we show him differently now? And that's where the idea of bringing back 'Angry Bachchan' struck us.  At the shoot, he was as fit as a fiddle even at 80...kicking, punching, and breaking stuff. We felt as if we were reliving the Zanjeer or Deewar era again. We're confident that just like he breaks upGrad’s office in the commercial, the ad will break clutter.”

 

The film is rolled out across upGrad’s digital platforms. 

 

CREDITS: 

 

Agency: The Womb

Founding partners: Kawal Shoor and Navin Talreja

Creative team: Suyash Khabya, Gunjan Gaba, Paritosh Lonkar and Ankita Sawant

Planning team: Sneha Raina and Ipshita Khan

Account management: Heval Patel and Richa Shah

Production house: Chrome Pitcures

Director: Amit Sharma

Executive producer: Napolean Daniel Amanna and Kush Malhotra

DOP: Ayananka Bose