Ad guru Alyque Padamsee - The man with three simultaneous careers

Some people are revered because they have one successful career. Some successful people transition from one career to another. And in each of those careers they become one of the leading practitioners. Admired by other leading practitioners of that career. Admired by others who want to join that career.

But I’ve come across only one man who was admired as a leader in all the three careers that he chose to run simultaneously.

Theatre. Brandvertising. Social service.

Alyque Padamsee chose to join advertising because he did not make enough of a living out of his first passion. Theatre. But when he joined advertising, he did not forget theatre. In fact, he brought theatre into advertising.

And you could say, he brought advertising into theatre. All his productions opened to full houses. And then continued to run to full houses long after most productions petered out. Where most theatre people thought of a play, he thought of a mega-musical.

Where most advertising people thought of an advertising campaign, he thought of brandvertising. A term he invented to mean the many ways that brands can be grown with an idea that transcended conventional advertising.

When most people thought of working for one NGO, for one cause, he chose to work for many causes. And he brought into those social causes his love for theatre and advertising.

A very large number of India’s elite know he led a “Double Life”. After all, he even wrote a book about it.

But millions of Indians will never know how he made their lives a little better because he actually ran a Triple Life. He just chose not to advertise his third career as much.

His heart belonged to India. A secular India. An emancipated India. A dowry-free India. A gender-sensitised India. A cancer free India. An AIDS free India. A drugs free India. An India that drives on the right lane... 

Anecdotes about the social causes he espoused and the not-for-profit organisations that he volunteered his time for would need another book.

A typical day in Alyque Padamsee’s life, while he was CEO of Lintas, had meetings scheduled at his residence, in the car as he drove to office, at his office, then at whichever theatre he was using for his current production. But don’t be surprised if the Art for C.R.Y. meeting happened in his office, the review of Lintas Delhi’s pitch for new business happened in the car and the pre-production detailing for the Kamasutra shoot happened at the theatre that he had to recce for his next production. His appointments would start from 8 am and would not end after 8 pm.

Very often he would bring his love for social causes into his other two careers.

So his Romeo and Juliet became star-crossed lovers who were Hindu and Muslim; Lifebuoy became a brand that introduced health clinics in rural areas; making condoms sexy became a way to prevent AIDS; product reveals at launch conferences not only had huge theatrical impact under his wand, but often revealed a social purpose, say, bucket washing with detergents saved water.

By now you will have read several obituaries about Alyque Padamsee. They would have talked about the two careers he consciously publicised. You would have been reminded of the MRF Man, The Liril Girl, Surf’s Lalitaji, the heartwarming Hamara Bajaj series, Kamasutra condoms and many other advertising ideas that changed India.

You would have been reminded of Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar, The Man of La Mancha, Othello... and the role he played as Jinnah in David Attenborough’s Gandhi.

But dig around in the Lintas archives and you’ll find the talent he encouraged through public service advertising. You might find a poster on Gandhi inked by Imtiaz Dharker. You might find an anti-dowry film that likened grooms to buffaloes. Created in partnership with Madhu Gadakari (who also recently passed away). You might find a movie that got sugarcane vendors to come to Express Towers to protest that the Lintas film showing in movie theatres was ruining their business.

Once when he asked me to put together a showreel of Lintas’s Public Service ads for a guest lecture he was about to make, I cheekily included the current commercials of Lifebuoy (rural health), Kamasutra (prevention of AIDS), Hamara Bajaj (national integration).

He had them removed at the rehearsal the night before, but we had a good laugh.

That was a career that he chose not to publicise.

Alyque Padamsee was a complex man who did what he thought was the best for India.

No wonder he was conferred the title of Padmashri.

The author is founder, director, www.univbrands.com

Roy worked closely with Alyque Padamsee as resource planning manager at Lintas from 1987 to 1991. Thereafter, Alyque Padamsee would come to Kolkata to work with the English theatre group that Roy is involved in in Kolkata, The Red Curtain.