Prasoon Joshi, National Creative Director, McCann Erickson India

A couple of fishing boats bob up and down the brown waters of the Hoogly. Standing in the falling dusk light, Prasoon Joshi watches an overflowing steamer as it huffs its way up the lazy river, tooting its primal horn as it passes under the modernistic steel web of the new Hoogly bridge that connects the cities of Kolkata and Howrah. "You know, I once took a steamer exactly like this for a job interview at Shalimar Paints," he reminisces with a faint smile. I wonder how the 34-year-old National Creative Director at McCann Erickson India and one of the brightest creative minds in Indian advertising would have fared as a desk-shackled manager in an ageing paints company. "But then that was years ago. I had just finished my MBA and a career in advertising was the last thing on my mind," he says, reading this writer's thoughts.

MBA? Then again, Joshi hardly fits the maverick image creative heads love to cultivate. Sure, there's the trademark black leather jacket, faded jeans and laced up suede shoes, but the resemblance stops there. Sipping on sweet, steaming tea-brewed in an ancient brass urn and served in earthen cups-a local specialty, he confesses, "Actually I've had a very conservative upbringing". Born in hilly Almora-now part of the new state of Uttaranchal-into a middle class Brahmin family, Joshi had a peripatetic childhood, thanks to a father who was a civil servant in the state education department. By the time he was in college, he had moved all over Uttar Pradesh; from Meerut to Lucknow to Ghaziabad to Rampur. "What I remember most are the music and books our house used to be always full of." Mother Shushama, a trained Indian classical music singer from the Rampur school, and still a regular fixture on the local radio station, ensured that every evening, no matter where, the Joshi family got together for an impromptu jam session. It was at these sessions that Joshi picked up an understanding of Indian music and instruments, skills that were to prove invaluable later in life.

Family get-togethers aside, Joshi was the archetypal loner. He preferred to spend hours by himself, wandering in the woods around his house, writing poetry, reading all he could lay his hands on, and indulging in what he calls his favourite pastime, "soaking in life." "Advertising is a borrowed art form. Like a sponge, every creator must soak up and store every experience he's fortunate to have," he spouts.

None of this stopped Joshi from topping his school examination. He knew, "a run-of-the-mill career was not for me", but to please his father who wanted to see him in the Indian Administrative Service, Joshi treaded the well-charted path of academia. After passing out from S.L. College in Rampur, he graduated from D.N. College, Meerut, even earned a Masters degree in science from N.A.S College, Meerut University.

While the degrees piled up, Joshi's restless stirring grew stronger. Seeking "new experiences" he turned to books on art, literature, and philosophy. The more he read, the more he wanted to be a writer. His first book-a collection of dark and brooding existentialist pieces-was published when he was only 17. He continued to write through his various stints in academia-his fourth collection is due this year-but never really thought one could make a living from writing. That was until his summer training with Trikaya Grey, Delhi. "I realised that it was possible to make money from writing," he says.

TAKING OFF

There was no stopping Joshi. After his MBA from IMT, Ghaziabad, he joined Ogilvy & Mather, Delhi, as junior copywriter-he was hired on the spot after he penned copy for a Sera tiles ad in five minutes. It was here that Joshi found his first mentor, the agency's then National Creative Director, Suresh Mullick. In the midst of a presentation within the agency, Joshi piped up and suggested that the ad be set to a certain kind of music. Mullick, an Indian classical music aficionado himself, was impressed enough to ask to meet alone with Joshi. Joshi's star was in the ascendant; within five months, he had scripted his first ad film, for Modi Tyres.

Joshi had the makings of a successful copy-writer: command over the language, a keen insight into human psyche, and the mandatory fire-in-his-belly. Unshackled from parental control and doing something he really enjoyed for the first time in his life, Joshi threw himself into his work. Out of this emerged his 1996 campaign for Nokia, Zindagi ki raftar mein rishton ko peeche na chootne dein (Don't allow life in the fast lane to jettison your relationships), focusing on a simple universal theme-call mom today.

Over the 10 years he spent at O&M-the last as Creative Director at the Mumbai office-a signature Joshi style evolved. And successful campaign followed successful campaign: social messages for polio and oral contraceptives, films for Asian Paints, Pond's Cold Cream or the much-acclaimed series for Cadbury's Dairy Milk and Perk. "What I like most about his work is that it's a hard hitting slice of life spiced with the punch of local dialect," says A.K. Dhingra, formerly Director, Sales and Marketing, Perfetti Van Melle. Perfetti Brands like Chlormint, Alpenliebe and Coffitos are still handled by Prasoon.

In a dark room in McCann Erickson's Bangalore office, Joshi fires up his Apple Power Book G4 and takes this writer though a guided tour of his popular Coca-Cola commercials starring Bollywood star Aamir Khan. The thanda matlab line came from Joshi's visits to North Indian households where a guest is always given the option of drinking something hot (garam) or cold (thanda); the shot of Coke bottles being chilled in a well from seeing farmers cooling mangoes thus. And the ads became cult phenomenon. "Most Indians are suckers for good dialogues," chuckles Joshi. "More than international awards, the greatest satisfaction I get creatively is when my advertising becomes part of people's everyday lives and conversations."

SHE'S HOT & HOW

For getting a hoary Atlanta-based multinational to go more-native-than-native with its advertising For starting a now widely emulated trend of using vernacular street-lingo in advertising For helping McCann Erickson become the agency of choice for countless advertisers

Knowing what works is one thing, translating it into flesh-and-blood campaigns in an industry fixated with western mores is another. Joshi has not only churned out successful ads reflecting the country's Hindi heartland but also bagged international awards for the same. "Why be ashamed of who we are?" he asks. "If we are basically loud and melodramatic, so be it." Such talk may have been blasphemous even a few years back. Now with marketing managers of every hue looking towards "Indian" India for growth, Joshi, with his real-life insights is being hailed the new Messiah.

If luck and timing helped kick-start Joshi's career, determination and an appetite for learning put it into orbit. Ridiculed five years ago for his non-existent knowledge of Western music, Joshi educated himself with his customary zeal. "From rock to punk to blues to classical music I worked my way through it," he says. "Artist by artist, album by album. I knew I was making up for lost time and there was no time to rest." Seeking "new experiences", he doesn't care where the new ideas come from. Be it a Punjabi taxi driver who made him listen to his compositions under a Delhi flyover in the middle of the night or a wandering madman who Joshi claims was one of the most erudite people he's ever met. "He's one of the really few original creative thinkers who never cease to surprise," recalls Santosh Desai, President, McCann Erickson. "There was this time he had to compose a song in 10 minutes and what he came up with was outstanding."

Mentors also played a large role in Joshi's ascendancy to the top. If it was Mullick who gave Joshi his first break, it was international adman Neil French who "inspired his craft" (along with an introduction to country crooners Mickey Newbury and Johnny Cash). "He taught me that an idea, no matter how exciting, is nothing if not backed by thorough craftsmanship, it's a fifty-fifty partnership," recalls Joshi about French, who is now Global Creative Director for the entire WPP group.

THE MANAGER

The afternoon sun streaming through McCann Erickson's Bangalore office catches Joshi in the midst of a conversation with key members of his creative team. On the walls are framed campaigns of McCann's award-winning international work. "If you are not helping sell the product, then it's not advertising," he intones. Questions are asked, queries raised, and art pulls are spread out and dissected. Milky tea arrives in styrofoam cups, adding to the thick fog of cigarette smoke. Joshi falls into that breed of new creative professionals that believes in getting the client to buy into the creative idea. He is convinced that relationships with clients need to be cultivated over the years, not just by the client servicing arm of the agency but also by senior creative people.

If Joshi is an "instinctive creator", then being a good manager is something he's working very hard at. As concerned about agency revenues as the creative image, he quickly runs through the list of Bangalore clients-TVS, Kwality Walls, ITC foods-and discusses what can be done to boost business. Naturally, senior managers are impressed. Says Sorab Mistry, Executive Vice President, Asia Pacific, McCann Erickson, "There are a lot of great creative people but what I find outstanding about Prasoon is his ability to churn out great creatives, working within the confines of the client's objective and strategy framework."

"The greatest satisfaction I get creatively is when my ads become part of people's everyday lives"

A bearded and bespectacled art director wants to hire a new art guy. Joshi is not so sure. "I hate firing people," he later confesses, "that's why it becomes very important to hire the right person." Quality, more than quantity, is what he looks for. The number of creative people in the Delhi office has come down from 22 to 14 but Joshi is not in a hurry. "I like to spend a lot of time with all potential recruits, spread over couple of interviews. An individual comes aboard with all his experiences, fresh perspectives and this is what really enriches the agency." And while integrity, experience and understanding the client's business are prerequisites, the bar to be a part of Prasoon's team is as much genetic as grooming. "The person has to be naturally gifted; either you have it or you don't," he says very matter of factly.

Watching Joshi at work, one realises that he takes his motto of leading by example very seriously. "Pitches are won on confidence and trust. If you're not honest the client will read it on your face," he tells his Bangalore team. The fact that so many creative brains-well known for their oversized egos-sit eagerly hanging onto every word he says, proves the part-time lyrics writer is doing something right.

Even finicky clients feel the same. His creative reputation and portfolio of past campaigns means that McCann has been able to bag a large number of prestigious accounts since Joshi came aboard two years back: LG, Pears, NDTV India, Balsara, Dabur and Marico. Then there is his legendary partnership with McCann Erickson's Strategic Head Santosh Desai, something Mistry calls, "a thriving marriage of the creative and strategic", and Desai terms, "an alignment of world views."

Being able to balance the creative and the managerial is something Joshi picked up from another mentor, O&M's Piyush Pandey. "I had heard so much about Piyush and wanted to work with him and thus was assigned to the Bombay office," recalls Joshi.

LOOKING AHEAD

Joshi is rushing to catch a flight back to Mumbai. "Nowadays, schedules are so hectic that I often don't know where I'll be tomorrow." The man-who writes and thinks best in moving vehicles-scribbles all his thoughts, ideas and observations into a red-bound notebook. Wife of eight years Aparna understands his schedule: she is a 10-year advertising veteran herself and the head of the western operations of Ogilvy's direct marketing arm. Ogilvy is where they met.

Joshi's schedule is indicative of the task at hand. Over the past two years, McCann has already built up a reputation as a creative hotbed, second probably only to his last employer, O&M. "I want to churn out more Cokes, more Chlormints. The deadwood has been pruned and now there's a great team in place." And the learning never stops.

Standing beside the gleaming white colonnades of Kolkata's Princep Ghat, which dates back to the early 18th century, Joshi is talking about the secret pitch that bought him on one of his rare visits to the city (the McCann office in the city shut down a few years back). Popping open a packet of Manikchand gutka-he sheepishly admits he's addicted to chewing tobacco-he runs through the afternoon pitch he made along with two other colleagues who had also flown in from Mumbai. "It was our second presentation and this one was made to the marketing department." McCann already handles a brand for the client, one of India's best known corporate houses, but in today's dog-eat-dog world he knows one can't be complacent. Joshi is serious, but it doesn't take long for the frown on his face to turn into his customary grin. There's a long-distance call on his Nokia Communicator. McCann has just bagged a Rs 20-crore account from Marico. "What's amazing is that it was done in just five days," he grins. The musical copywriter has struck the right chord again.