Cannes Lions 2012: Taproot-RDP hit third Gold for India

Taproot's 'I am Mumbai' produced by Ramesh Deo Productions wins a Gold Lion in Film Craft; The Dewarists from Bacardi India won a Bronze Lion in Branded Content & Entertainment

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Delhi | June 24, 2012

On the final day of Cannes Lions 2012, India got 2 Lions – a Gold and a Bronze from 5 shortlists across 4 categories Film, Film Craft, Titanium & Integrated and Branded Content & Entertainment. Taproot India's campaign for Mumbai Mirror – 'I am Mumbai' clinched a Gold Lion for India in Film Craft category for Best Direction. The campaign that was shortlisted in both Film and Film Craft categories was entered in the Film Craft category by Ramesh Deo Productions, Mumbai. The film was directed by Abhinay Deo and the producer was Apurba Sengupta of RDP. The track for the TVC was composed by Ram Sampath.

The Dewarists from Bacardi India won a Bronze Lion in Branded Content & Entertainment category. With this, India's total medal tally has reached up to 14 including 3 Gold, 3 Silver and 8 Bronze Lions but it is far away from last year when Indian agencies brought 24 Lions home.

The 3 years' young independent agency from India has won 2 Gold and 2 Silver Lions at Cannes so far. In its first year at Cannes Lions 2010, Taproot India had won a Gold and a Silver Lions in Press category for its print campaign for Conqueror Paper. Last year, the agency had won a Silver Lion for its outdoor campaign for Audio Book India in the Entertainment, Retail, Restaurants and Publications sub-category of Outdoor.

Thrilled over this second golden hit at Cannes in last 3 years, Santosh Padhi, Chief Creative Officer & Co-Founder, Taproot India, said, “We are happy to keep our presence at Cannes as our work has been applauded here for last 3 years in a row. I'm very happy that a very local city centric idea has won a global recognition. So, we should keep doing great cultural work as that's what will separate us from others.”

Taproot India had conceptualized the hard-hitting campaign based on four real stories broken by Mumbai Mirror in the recent past. The central idea was to create a fictionalised account of how affected citizens from all walks of life found a strong and powerful voice in the paper.

For long, Mumbai Mirror has, through a relentless series of exposes, been dumping the uncomfortable truths about the city's seamier underside onto breakfast tables every morning. With stories that are disturbing and make one squirm but are undeniably true and happening in our backyard even as we swish off to work in our air-conditioned, EMI-powered automobiles. The objective of the campaign was to dramatise the fact that all these disturbing Mumbai Mirror stories ended up becoming a voice for the city's silent victims… a voice that was AMPLIFIED in a way that everyone in the city was forced to listen every morning.

Shot in black & white, the TVC shows the resentment and the fury expressed by the central protagonists of each of the stories that includes a writer protesting over his burnt books, a mother raging over the use of sewage water in milk fed to her children, street urchins screaming about their inhuman living conditions, and a young lad dissenting about the political parties' posters pasted on the city walls. Besides anger, they all have one thing in common: they represent Mumbai by screaming out loud the 'I am Mumbai' slogan. The ad also informs about the date, year and the page when each of the stories appeared in the compact newspaper.

The TVC:

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BBH India's 'Tanjore' campaign for Google Chrome was another shortlist in Film Craft category from India but could not convert into a Lion. The film was produced by EEKSAURUS Mumbai.

There were total 41 entries submitted from India this year for Film Craft Lions. Film Craft Lions Jury was headed by Ivan Zacharias, Director, Stink, UK, and Sneha Iype Varma, Executive Producer/Partner, Nirvana Films, was representing India as a jury member.

Another Taproot campaign, 'A day in life of India', for The Times of India was finalist in Titanium & Integrated category but failed to win a lion.

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