The torch song: flashback 34 years

With the Tokyo Olympics and our 75th Independence Day on our minds, an advertising insider takes us back to the sets of a patriotic video that can still get us emotional

The year was 1987. Rajiv Gandhi had taken over as Prime Minister against a troubled political backdrop. But he was nothing like his predecessors; he was our youth icon — genteel, suave and progressive. That year, he and Doordarshan’s director general Bhaskar Ghose felt that Indian patriotism needed a shot in the arm. Advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather was appointed to make the film. (Rajiv Gandhi played a major role in getting the I&B Ministry to choose a ‘westernised’ agency instead of a government-funded one to script and produce a film on national integration.) The team led by Suresh Mullick and film director Kailash Surendranath was briefed. Suresh, O&M’s maverick creative director, was already an advertising legend. Not only was he a great visualiser and writer, but he had an enviable, in-depth knowledge of music across genres. After some brainstorming, he decided to use our sports heroes, both current and past, in the film. Nothing inspires patriotism in Indian hearts the way sports does.