Ram's Excellent Adventure
Great Guns takes the award-winning Indian Director Ram Madhvani on a world tour.
Ram's Excellent Adventure
Great Guns takes Indian Director
Ram Madhvani on a world tour.
By Anthony Vagnoni
Celebrated Indian Director Ram Madhvani, who's represented globally by Great Guns and in India by his own production company, Equinox, was in New York early this week at the studios of creative editorial house Cut + Run, talking about heroes, TV commercials and reinvention – and not quite in that order.
Madhvani's presentation, attended by a group of agency and production executives, along with friends, colleagues and a smattering of family, was part of Great Guns Founder and Executive Producer Laura Gregory's plan to widen the director's appeal as a filmmaker and expose his talents and personality outside of India.
The director, whose charming and self-effacing talk revolved around his work and his career – one that's seen him rise to being one of the top globally-ranked directors, according to the Gunn Report – had just embarked on a four-city tour to meet with creatives, show his work and talk about the story arc of his career.
The world tour was jointly sponsored by Great Guns and Little Black Book. Its first stop was in Los Angeles late last week, where the director was a speaker at a creative conference for clients and staff held by McCann Healthcare. He then flew to New York for the event earlier this week, followed several days later by a similar talk in Amsterdam, held at the offices of The Ambassadors, a post production studio. Madhvani's world tour concludes in London tonight.
What's the purpose of this trek? "It's to see if the West is ready for an Indian director," Madhvani said with a smile. "Is there something I can bring to clients here that's different than what they can get from American or European directors – can I bring what we in India would call masala, some Indian spice?"
Madhvani explained that he's wanted to be a filmmaker since he was in his teens. He came to the US some years ago to study film production at New York University, but returned to India to launch his career. "Now I feel like the time is right for me to come back," he noted, "if they'll have me. My goal is for people to be able to put a face to the work."
His interest in working outside of India coincides with the global growth of Great Guns. The shop has set out to raise its profile in the US; in accordance with this move, Head of Production Sheridan Thomas recently relocated from London to its Los Angeles office.
Thomas, who's been with the company for 17 years – since shortly after it was launched by Gregory in 1993 – points out that Great Guns has spent the past several years building its network in Asia. "We've had great success there, and now we feel it's time that we assumed a larger presence for Great Guns here in America," he said. "We want to establish the company here in the truest sense of the word, which is why I've moved here."
Gregory said that the tour is a way to introduce Madhvani in a manner that's simultaneously more immersive as well as more personal. "Just showing the work isn't enough," she notes. "These presentations are really about Ram's journey as a filmmaker, which is a fascinating story. It's a passionate and thought-provoking way of showing his work to an audience."
Madhvani described what went into his transformation from a more or less standard issue TVC director working in the Indian market to one known globally for post-heavy, highly visual work, kicking it off by screening his 2007 Happydent gum commercial titled "Maharaja," a complex spot in which the smiles of servants chewing Happydent gum provides the light for a rich man's mansion, tennis courts and limousine. He then screened a 'making of' video that detailed the layers of production and post work required to bring the spot to life. The spot features visual effects provided by Prime Focus in Mumbai.
His transformation process was one of determination, followed by all the stages of the epic narrative as described by the author Joseph Campbell in his manifesto, "The Heroes Journey," which was Madhvani's theme for the talk. It entails dealing with self-doubt, making mistakes, developing assurance and finally returning to one's roots. "You really have to make a conscious decision that this is the kind of work you want to do," he explained. "You need to make a commitment to it."
Madhvani explained that he came to the realization that the best way to stand out in the crowded Indian marketplace would be to specialize in a genre that was demanding yet rewarding. Since then, he's become known for work that incorporates a wild design aesthetic, extensive visual effects, a light touch in terms of performance and a heaping serving of Bollywood zest, resulting in spots that are often funny yet dazzling to look at.
As Madhavni embarks on an effort to widen his appeal beyond India, he noted that he's also in the process of returning to his roots as what he called a "humanist" director. "My focus now isn't as much on what I'm going to say in my films, or how I'm going to say it," he explained, "but rather on how I am I going to make you feel?"
To that end, he showed a four-minute film he made with the Indian movie star Aamir Khan, who has just launched a TV program in India called "Satyame Jayate," which translates to "truth will win." The show addresses key social issues facing the country; to promote it, the star and Madhvani, traveling with a small camera crew, travelled around India for two weeks, meeting with everyday people in their environments and learning about their lives. The documentary-style short – which provides a snapshot of Indian life today - accompanies the theme song for the show. (Click here to watch it.)
We asked Madhvani why he signed with Great Guns, which will be his production banner as he extends his sphere beyond India. He explained that when he came to London some time ago to meet with various production companies, he arranged to have dinner with Gregory. "And she called ahead to find out about my family – what kind of food they like to eat, things like that. When we arrived for the dinner, she also brought along her daughter, who's my son's age," he said. "So it felt very quickly like family."
Now it's up to Great Guns to see if they can make Madhvani feel at home in Europe, the US and the UK.
Additional sponsors for Madhavani's world tour, in addition to Cut + Run New York, The Ambassadors in Amsterdam and Envy Post in London, included UK-based Dirty Soup, which provided the music for each event; The London Cocktail Company, which provided cocktails for the Envy Post event; and Asahi Beer, which provided beer for the London event as well.
Published 10 May, 2012
