By Jilawatan

“Desi Beats naam hai product ka, so launch film should have ‘tadka’”. That was the briefing that the creative brains at JWT India got from their client Pepsico India a few months ago. And little did they know that they will soon be adding Kareena Kapoor to their brand ambassadorial team to promote Kurkure Desi Beats.

Sonia Bhatnagar, vice-president and senior creative director, JWT India, says, “As Indians we love to adopt western trends and ideas but with a twist of our own. So we made dance bhangra to a western beat, we invent the ‘henna tattoo’, etc. Basically ‘firang ishtyle mein desi tadka’ and that’s exactly what desi beats is – a nacho style chip with a ‘chatpata desi masala’ flavour.”

While Juhi Chawla, who has been associated with brand Kurkure for five years now, will continue to be the face of the brand, Kareena is promoting two new flavours of Kurkure Desi Beats – Dildaar Masala and Deewana Tamatar.

Adds Bhatanagar, “We chose Kareena because we loved her in Jab We Met. That’s the personality we wanted our brand to emulate. She is totally desi, someone who talks about things like they are, without any pretensions.”

The ad depicts an old age concept of Cinderella, but with a cool desi twist: Kareena plays the character of a maid, who is always belittled by her stepsisters. Enters fairy godmother Ila Arun, who spices up her life with a packet of Kurkure Desi Beats. Kareena enters a dance party in a desi attire and lures the Englishman away from her sisters. The TVC ends with the tagline – ‘No Fun, Without Desipann.’

The commercial was shot in Mumbai in one and a half days, and was directed by Film Director, Nikhil Advani and produced by Sunil Manchanda of MAD Productions. Shooting the ad with Kareena was fun with Saif also dropping in from time to time to meet his lady love.

Bhatnagar informs, “Saif had once come to meet Kareena while she was shooting the ad. As she was doing the Cinderella bit – scrubbing dishes and sweeping the floor, et al, without any makeup on (because we really wanted her to look like a poor, ill treated, scruffy maid) – Saif took one look at her and in full filmy style clutched his heart and in a light banter said, ‘isn’t she looking beautiful?’!”

What’s more? The shoot was to be done on the day after Diwali, so the entire crew was made to work during the festival. Furthermore, the set designer also met with an accident on the day of the shoot and due to visa problems many of the firang models were not able to travel to the country.