Bollywood baddies Prem Chopra, Shakti Kapoor star in new Havells Wires ad

If you fleetingly catch a glimpse of Prem Chopra and Shakti Kapoor on TV wearing their flashiest clothes and sitting at a bar, you might mistakenly think it is a new movie the duo is starring in. But it is Havells Wires’ new ad, conceptualised by Lowe Lintas. The latest commercial also features Bollywood’s third iconic baddie, actor Ranjeet and focuses on how Havells Wires are ‘wires that don’t catch fire’.

[caption id=“attachment_84366” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] A still from the film[/caption]

The film opens to a restless Prem Chopra, with a voice saying, “You spent your entire life being a villain, but the Lifetime Achievement Award goes to him?” The viewer then realises that the voice belongs to Shakti Kapoor. He is inciting Chopra against Ranjeet, who has just won the award. Chopra is increasingly getting upset.

The VO says, “This is what you call lighting a fire” referring to the fire of inciting someone. Kapoor keeps talking, trying to prove to Chopra why he was the more deserving candidate. The VO says that this is the classical case of fueling the fire. Finally, Kapoor tells him, “If I were you, I would leave.” At this point Chopra is really incensed. The VO says that Chopra’s wiring has finally caught fire, but thankfully the place they are in has Havells Wires since they don’t catch fire.

Watch the TVC here:

Firstbiz spoke to Shriram Iyer, executive creative director at Lowe Lintas to understand more about the campaign.

Iyer said that the brief from Havells India hasn’t changed at all, neither did the proposition. What changed was the tonality. How did the change from emotional to humourous come about?

“Our work for Havells Wires has always had an emotional peg and tone. But overtime, we got the feeling that we needed to deliver the same proposition in a different way; hence, the completely new tone of voice. And what is a better way to tell this story than with the insight of ‘Aag mein tel daalne wala kaam’? Iyer said.

Iyer said that the insight stemmed from the juxtaposition of the fire of negativity that is within a person with a fire caused due to bad wiring. “Since humas can’t insulate themselves from within, at least they can protect what is around them from a fire,” Iyer said.

Iyer said that the client was delighted with the idea of bringing Bollywood’s most iconic baddies on board.

Said Iyer, “We have all grown up watching these ‘bad guys’ spew every kind of negative quality that there is. Since we had to metaphorically convey fire as the negative emotion a person feels, we all agreed that bringing the ‘villains’ back would be a perfect fit."

Iyer said that the experience of working with these stars of yore was a great one. “Their performance was brilliant as expected; but what was even better was their attitude and discipline towards work. They were extremely clear and assertive. Through the course of the shoot we realised their mastery they have over the craft. They are absolutely up there with their talent and it was wonderful to be able to acknowledge it."

He also said that Havell’s was looking at extending this idea for future campaigns, but that nothing was in the pipeline yet.

Credits:

Campaign name: ‘Wires that don’t catch fire’

Agency: Lowe Lintas

Client: Havells India

National creative director: Amer Jaleel

Executive creative director: Shriram Iyer

Creative team: Shayondeep Pal, Ira Gupta

Account management: Amjad Ali, Sonia Upadhyay

Strategy and planning: Anurag Prasad

Production house: Lintas Productions

Director: Vikal Bahl

Exposure: TV, print, radio, internet