"'Baap ka Road' was an instinctive insight": R Balki on his latest outing as ad film writer-director

A closer look at the three recent social awareness films released by Ministry of Road Transport and Highways that have tickled many a netizen across social media.

How often do you flout traffic rules or casually ignore road signages? It's not uncommon to do so here on Indian roads. And ironically, 'Road Safety' isn't even a new story; it engages you right from the time you leave home, to the traffic cop on the street, via various messaging by local bodies/ NGOs and even via CSR messages from corporates. However, it's resulted in the message becoming a bit of a 'blind spot' for many motorists. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH), however, in an attempt to encourage commuters to follow traffic rules, has taken a humorous route via a new ad campaign featuring Akshay Kumar. Hopefully, it'll help break the monotony from the previously 'preachy' campaigns.

'Sadak Suraksha Jeevan Raksha' ad campaign, featuring Akshay Kumar

'Sadak Suraksha Jeevan Raksha' ad campaign, featuring Akshay Kumar

'Sadak Suraksha Jeevan Raksha' ad campaign, featuring Akshay Kumar

Titled 'Sadak Suraksha Jeevan Raksha', the campaign highlights the use of the rather crude, but common line - 'Tu jaanta nahi mera baap kaun hai?' - frequently used by travellers who indulge in making a mockery of traffic rules. In one of the three films released as part of the campaign, a man is featured uttering the infamous dialogue to a policeman played by Akshay Kumar. However, Akshay snaps back with - 'Ye sadak kisi ke baap ki nahi hai!'

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This tongue-in-cheek narrative, scripted and directed by R. Balki and produced by Hope Productions, delivers the safety message by striking a chord with the Indian audience. The campaign is a collaborative effort involving Bharat Dabholkar, Kiran Vernekar, Sayali Kulkarni, and Divya Radhakrishnan through Helios Media (media agency for the account).

R. Balki

"We all see people breaking the rules day in and day out and there's a lot of data corresponding to it. It was an instinctive campaign with very instinctive insight, i.e. people think that they own the whole world, thus the line - 'Baap ka Road'. I did an in-depth study of how people break the rules before scripting the storyline," Balki explains.

Balki even acknowledges MORTH for giving him an absolutely free hand to carry out the project. And while the adman turned filmmaker had been involved with brands all his life and has done a lot of government ads, he mentions that the brief the ministry gave him was simple - 'tell people not to break traffic rules'.

"The moment I told them the idea (storyline) they were really excited. In fact, it was like a client who knew what to communicate and the power of communication," says Balki.

In terms of research, the creative team had the backing of MORTH's data from across the country. The cause of accidents reported was a parameter to determine the communication. Newer issues - wearing seat-belts and mobile phone usage while motoring - had to be highlighted and it had to reach out to youth, in particular. Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport and Highways of India, took the bold decision and approved the campaign without any bureaucracy.

Divya Radhakrishnan

Bharat Dabholkar

Kiran Vernekar

Sayali Kulkarni

"We worked on the project for a year-and-a-half, putting out various routes for development and tests. We shot a film with Gadkari and followed it up with the Akshay Kumar campaign," informs Radhakrishnan, managing director, Helios Media.

She adds, "Sayali (Kulkarni), vice president of the BJP youth wing - Mumbai, who has been doing a lot of work in the social space, approached the central ministry to create a communication for the youth on road-safety. On getting a principle approval, she approached our consortium wherein Bharat Dabholkar (creative lead) along with Kiran Vernekar and I put the whole project together through Helios Media."

The campaign will be aired across all key media points with special focus on radio, outdoor (being the point of use space), digital (appealing to the youth), and TV (for the masses). It will have multiple legs and will be released in eight different languages.

So, what was the idea of roping in Akshay Kumar as the road-safety ambassador?

"We wanted to bring in the perfect blend of a celebrity putting across the message in the most appealing and impactful manner. Akshay Kumar is currently a face of social messaging across his body of latest work in Bollywood. Also, he cuts across generations of audiences, given the phase of life he is in," explains Radhakrishnan.

Interestingly, when the Helios Media team approached the Bollywood star for the campaign, it was Akshay who proposed Balki's name. In fact, the Pad Man star accompanied the creative team while the campaign was pitched to Gadkari.

"Akshay was going on vacation in June, but he gave me a day's time. So, from 7.00am to 1.00pm we shot all three films, back to back. Akshay stands for a lot of good causes and he volunteered to do this campaign, without charging money," informs Balki, adding, "We had great fun doing Pad Man together. And we had the same kind of fun doing this socially-relevant campaign too."

A hit or a flop?

Usually, government-led campaigns such as Polio Mukt Bharat with Amitabh Bachchan and Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan, featuring Vidya Balan, are a bit melodramatic or have a serious message. We asked the experts if this piece of communication was executed well enough to reach the right audiences.

Sirish Suveer G

Ayan Banik

According to Sirish Suveer G, vice president, Publicis Ambience, unlike the usual preachy tone of public service messaging, this campaign is contrarian by design.

He says, "The choice of Akshay Kumar is a masterstroke; the humour, yet seriousness, is flawlessly delivered. Amongst the three, my personal favourite is 'Lokmanya Tilak'; the build-up by Akshay Kumar has sufficient intrigue and the protagonist's expressions are classic. It builds in the shame beautifully. In my opinion, this approach certainly reinforces the message and should get the audience to chuckle and ponder on their habits."

Ayan Banik, head - brand strategy, Cheil India, feels that the insight - 'road kissi ke baap ka nahin hai' - is very potent and relevant in a country where we tend to take a lot of public property for granted and flout rules and regulations, thinking it's our birthright to do so. He awards it full marks for latching on to a very relatable and relevant insight to highlight the most common rules flouted by motorists.

"We have been exposed to various forms of public service messaging around road-safety for over four decades. So, the challenge was how to reiterate an oft-repeated messaging and yet make it engaging and interesting to watch. And the campaign does full justice to that," says Banik.

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Nonetheless, he maintains, "It's not just the drivers and riders who flout rules, often, traffic rules are flouted by pedestrians too. So, the expectation from the team is that there will be another set of communications with equally powerful insight and execution that will sensitise pedestrians about responsible road-safety behaviour as well."