Last Updated:
From the Cadbury Dairy Milk girl’s carefree dance to Fevicol’s wit and warmth, Piyush Pandey redefined how the country saw joy, emotion, and everyday life.
Remembering Piyush Pandey: The creative genius behind India’s most iconic ads
When Piyush Pandey passed away in Mumbai on Friday at the age of 70, India didn’t just lose a legendary adman, it lost the man who gave the country its most beloved jingles, lines, and laughter.
From Fevicol’s cheeky “Jor laga ke haisha” to Asian Paints’ sentimental “Har ghar kuch kehta hai”, Pandey’s words weren’t just selling products, they were shaping the nation’s emotions. But among his countless campaigns, one stood apart. One that danced, smiled, and stayed.
It began with a girl on a cricket field.
She’s in a blue printed dress, a bar of chocolate in hand. Her favourite batsman hits a winning shot and she bursts onto the field, twirling past security guards with unfiltered joy. The crowd erupts. The music swells. And a simple line appears, “Asli swaad zindagi ka.”
That 1994 Cadbury Dairy Milk commercial wasn’t just an ad. It was a cultural awakening. And behind its magic was a man with a boarding pass full of lyrics and a knack for finding beauty in the ordinary.
A Crisis, a Flight, and a Tune in the Sky
In 1994, Cadbury India had a problem. The brand was loved by children but dismissed by adults. The brief to Ogilvy was simple yet daunting: make chocolate desirable for grown-ups.
Piyush Pandey was on a Diwali holiday in the U.S. when the call came from his boss, “We need something extraordinary or we could lose the account.” Pandey immediately booked a flight home.
Somewhere over the Atlantic, on the back of his boarding pass, he scribbled the lines that would change everything, “There’s something so real… in everyone. There’s something so real… ask anyone.”
Back in Bombay, he reached out to his friend, music maestro Louis Banks, who composed the melody in 15 minutes before catching his own flight. The English version, sung by Gary Lawyer, was recorded within a day. But Pandey knew the tune needed to sound more Indian, something that would live in hearts, not just ears.
He rewrote the lyrics in Hindi, keeping the same rhythm, and asked Shankar Mahadevan to sing it. Mahadevan’s delicate improvisations, the “harkats” in “Kuch swaad hai” gave the song its soul.
The Girl Who Danced Her Way Into India’s Heart
With the music and idea ready, only one thing was missing the face of unrestrained joy. Pandey wanted someone who didn’t act happy, but felt it. No trained dancers. No rehearsed smiles. Just pure emotion.
That’s when Shimona Rashi walked in. She wasn’t a model or a performer and that was exactly why she fit. Director Mahesh Mathai shot the ad at Mumbai’s Brabourne Stadium, and her sequence was captured in one spontaneous take.
No retakes. No choreography. Just a girl, a bar of chocolate, and joy that couldn’t be faked.
“When we saw her dance,” an Ogilvy team member later recalled, “we knew we had it. It didn’t look performed. It looked felt.”
When a Chocolate Became a Metaphor for Life
When the ad hit TV screens, India fell in love. It aired between cricket matches, family soaps, and news bulletins and yet it didn’t feel like an ad. It felt like a feeling.
For the first time, chocolate wasn’t just for children. It became a symbol of freedom, of indulgence, of the childlike joy in every adult.
As Prakash Nair, Associate President at Ogilvy, later said, “Before this, Cadbury was always seen as a parent’s gift to a child. This campaign made it something everyone could enjoy because it spoke to the kid within us.”
The ad won every major advertising award in the country and was later named “Campaign of the Century” by the Advertising Club of Bombay. But its real legacy wasn’t in trophies, it was in how it made people feel.
The Legacy That Never Faded
More than 25 years later, in 2020, Ogilvy revisited the iconic idea, this time flipping the gender roles. A young man ran onto the cricket field as a woman hit the winning shot.
The updated version, conceived by Swagata Banerjee, Samyu Murali, Kainaaz Karmakar, Sukesh Nayak, and Harshad Rajadhyaksha, had one crucial directive from Pandey himself:
“Do everything you want but don’t change the music.”
The melody remained. And so did the magic.
Even in an age of hashtags and reels, that tune born on a boarding pass, sung by Mahadevan, danced to by Shimona Rashi still tugs at something deep within.
A Man Who Made India Hum, Smile, and Feel
Piyush Pandey’s genius lay in his simplicity. He didn’t chase trends; he captured truths. He believed advertising wasn’t about selling, it was about connecting.
In doing so, he turned commercials into cultural moments. He made glue emotional, paint poetic, and chocolate eternal.
He once said, “If it doesn’t move you, it won’t move anyone.” And that’s exactly what his work did, it moved a nation.
For those who grew up hearing his jingles, seeing his lines, and feeling his joy, his words will always echo, just like that timeless line:
“Kuch swaad hai zindagi mein.” Because Piyush Pandey showed us what the real taste of life truly is.
Swati Chaturvedi, a seasoned media and journalism aficionado with over 10 years of expertise, is not just a storyteller; she’s a weaver of wit and wisdom in the digital landscape. As a key figure in News18 Engl…Read More
Swati Chaturvedi, a seasoned media and journalism aficionado with over 10 years of expertise, is not just a storyteller; she’s a weaver of wit and wisdom in the digital landscape. As a key figure in News18 Engl… Read More
October 24, 2025, 19:59 IST
