Five years ago, Kanhaiya Kumar of JNU made his azadi slogan a rage among young people. It had inspired a Chandigarh-based musician to compose an ‘azadi’ song, sparked a market for ‘Kanhaiya T-shirts’ in Delhi, and even found its way into a Delhi government ad as a catchphrase.
Soon, the brand Kanhaiya became a viral travel portal ad that showed a Kanhaiya look-alike raising the ‘azadi’ slogan at an airport, just to get a window seat.
Raghu Bhat, founder of Scarecrow Communications and the brain behind the ad, said that the popularity of the word azadi rested completely on Kanhaiya’s soul-stirring speech. His speeches illustrated two important principles of communication. Firstly, people responded to emotion rather than logic. Great communicators, from Churchill to Malcolm X, had never been afraid to show their naked emotions to their audiences. Secondly, the audience needed a communication takeaway or ‘hook’. In this case, it was the word azadi, which distilled a long speech into a simple, memorable chant.
While Raghu knew the ad would click, he hadn’t expected such an overwhelming response. It became a rare ‘pure’ viral campaign that wasn’t artificially boosted like many others. It began with one Facebook post and didn’t even feature a celebrity to guarantee a critical mass of views.
The ad was shot in an eight-hour, adrenaline-high night shift on an airport set in the western suburbs of Mumbai. There had been no audition. Both Raghu Bhat and director Naren Multani were certain that only actor Avinash Dwivedi could pull it off.
The fact that Avinash was from Gorakhpur, where the accent was close to that of Bihar, only helped refine the detailing. He was briefed about the story and then left alone for three days to prepare.
Some people criticised the ad for having a socio-political agenda, but the diversity of reactions was inevitable. Soon, however, compliments started pouring in. The biggest honour any creative work could receive was for the audience to understand its intention. Many people accepted the ad for what it truly was, a funny commercial with a topical twist.
The only challenge the Scarecrow team couldn’t conquer was the number of retakes. The other actors who had to shout aazadi along with Avinash simply couldn’t stop giggling.
As for Avinash Dwivedi, he had no idea he was part of a future viral sensation. Even though his performance earned him rave reviews, he wasn’t sure about his act after the very first take.