'Piyush Pandey was my prankster friend', college friend recalls

How do you distil a relationship spanning 60 years into a few lines? “There are countless anecdotes, most personal enough to warrant silence, but what I can say is I’ve been as much a part of his family as he has mine. We were together in school, then in college, and we stayed in touch over the years,” says Amitava Mathur.

He is talking about adman extraordinaire Piyush Pandey, who passed away after a prolonged illness on October 24 at the age of 70.

“We celebrated his birthday this year, in April, in Goa, when he tried to teach me how to swim,” laughs Amitava as he recalls the family vacation.

While the world knows him as the ad maverick, who managed to condense entire universes of thought into simple taglines that resonated, for his friends, he remains the humble prankster with a heart of gold.

Pandey was born in 1955 in the Pink City, Jaipur to a father who was a banker and a mum who was a teacher.

He had eight siblings: seven sisters, including the famous singer-actor Ila Arun, and a brother, the ad commercial director Prasoon Pandey.

He went to school in St Xavier’s School, Jaipur, where he excelled in sports including swimming and cricket. “He was a very great sportsman, and not just cricket. He represented our school when it came to swimming,” says Amitava.

He also represented Rajasthan as part of State School boys and later went on to play the Ranji Trophy.

By the time he went to Delhi University – where he was enrolled in a Bachelor of Arts programme at St Stephen’s College – he was “fearless”.

“He was always full of beans. I remember once he and our other friends had a bet with me and said that once I had gone to sleep, they would swipe everything from my room. I have no idea how they managed it, but they somehow picked up the cot I was sleeping on and I woke up in the balcony!” he laughs.

He was a man’s man, says Amarendra Nandkeolyar, or Billy. We had plenty of hilarious escapades together. The fellow Stephanian met Piyush on the cricket field. “It was 1973. We were both in Delhi University’s St. Stephens, and he came to the field with a reputation for playing well. I was a transfer student from abroad and my prowess in the game was a bit of a mystery to everyone. But he didn’t let me feel out of place – he was warm and welcoming, and we became fast friends,” he tells Gulf News.

“When he found out that summer that I would need to be in college over the break because my parents were abroad, he didn’t think twice before inviting me over to his home,” adds Billy. “His family was warm – and he went all-out taking me around town to see Jaipur at its finest. We behaved as all young students do during a break, discovering a city, hanging out in shady spots that went with our devil-may-care attitudes. His was a rapier wit, which would make itself known at the most unexpected times – he literally could make a joke out of nothing, and it would not only make sense but it would be deep and make you think.”

He was also focused about what he wanted. Billy recalls going hunting rabbits with him and their friends during a break and finding that although they had managed to kill a couple, no one wanted to actually cook them. “That day was the first time I’ve ever had banana curry,” he recalls. "It was the most unusual thing."

His penchant for vegetarian food was something that became a bit of a family joke, agrees Amitava. “When we would travel abroad together, he would make us find and eat dal-roti (lentils and flatbread) at a vegetarian restaurant,” he recalls fondly. No matter how fame and fortune danced around him, he did not let it affect his friendships. “And he had a gift for keeping in touch with his friends,” says Amitava.

After college, Piyush worked in a number of industries - cricket, tea tasting, and construction work – before he settled on advertising. He began his stint as an account manager for Ogilvy and Mather India, where he quickly realised that the English-dominated industry needed a change. After all, to speak to a person, you must speak their language. He used his gift of articulation to condense deep thoughts into one-liners in Hindi, the language of the masses. And while the Sunlight Detergent print ad was the first ad he ever wrote in 1982, he soon began to write other iconic lines.

“As a child growing up watching the Indian public television broadcaster Doordarshan, the song Mile sur mera tumhara taught me what the idea of India was, what national unity meant and why it was unlike any other nation in the world,” says Akheel Hassan Bilgrami, a Dubai-based adman who has been a part of the industry for over 20 years.

“He is the reason why I still believe advertising can define culture, be memorable for all the right reasons and truly shape people’s opinions. In his hands, brands were living, breathing beings that had personality, charm and memorability. The industry changed but his principles stood the test of time. Because there was the simplicity of truth in them,” he adds.

He would go on to write brilliant bytes for the likes of Fevicol, ‘Yeh Fevicol ka jod hai, tootega nahin’; Cadbury, 'Asli swaad zindagi ka’; and Asian Paints, 'Har ghar kuch kehta hai’ – taglines that remain in the minds of people decades later. “He showed us that real creativity isn’t about polish or perfection, it’s about courage, truth, and human connection. He taught an entire generation that ideas don’t need big words or big budgets to move people — they just need honesty and heart,” says Dubai-based advertising and tech professional Bilawal Sheikh.

Under his leadership, Ogilvy held the title of best advertising agency for 12 years. He and his brother became the first Asians to receive the prestigious Lion of St. Mark at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

And he was also awarded the Padma Shri, India’s fourth-highest civilian award, in 2016.

In being himself, Pandey also managed to inspire an entire generation of ad professionals. Zainul Abedin Barodawalla, a Dubai-based creative from India, explains: “Perhaps I unconsciously chose advertising because some ads gave me far greater joy than 1990s Bollywood. Perhaps Piyush Pandey’s work quietly nudged me toward this profession. I wish I’d had the temerity to tell him that during my one and only interaction with him at the AdAsia Conference in 2003. That would’ve been better than just standing there, gaping."

He adds sheepishly, "The Indian ad industry will dearly miss the moustache.” (He was known for a well-kept handlebar 'tashe.)

For Abhinav Sinha, an ad profession based in Mumbai, “Pandey’s campaigns — simple, clever, deeply Indian — will live on as his enduring legacy. His work gave brands a distinctly Indian soul, and his legacy will continue to inspire generations of storytellers.”

Pandey knew how to make an idea sing — and it wasn’t limited to the field of advertising. He exercised his ability co-writing the screenplay for Bhopal Express. And he had a part to play in 2013’s Madras Café.

In 2014, he was the mind behind the Modi government’s most famous tagline - ‘Ab ki baar, Modi sarkar (This time, it’s Modi government).’

The Indian Prime Minister paid tribute to Pandey on Oct 24, tweeting: “Shri Piyush Pandey Ji was admired for his creativity. He made a monumental contribution to the world of advertising and communications. I will fondly cherish our interactions over the years. Saddened by his passing away. My thoughts are with his family and admirers. Om Shanti.”

Pandey passed in Mumbai, after a month-long bout of illness.

And as the world mours the loss of a titan of thought, his friends remember him a bit differently — as a brilliant mind with a rapier wit, yes, but also as someone who humility never deserted. “I don't think he had any malice in him at all. I never heard him say a bad word about anyone,” says Amitava.

Billy adds: “Today, hearing about his passing, I feel a sense of great loss – it’s not just a legend (though he was that) has gone. My friend has left too.”