Gajraj Rao wants a job

Gajraj Rao is everywhere. He acts in movies that are screened across the country. He stars in shows which are streamed worldwide. Rao appears in advertisements too.

And yet, a couple of days ago, he put up a LinkedIn post requesting “clients and agency creative directors” to consider him. No, it was not a call for help. It was a shoutout because he was keen to direct ad films again.

“A young creative told me he was unsure whether I will work on a particular ad film because somebody told him I am acting and will not have the time,” stated Rao as one of the major reasons for his LinkedIn post.

Most people recognise Rao from his acting projects. A few know him as an ad film director and the co-founder of Code Red Films, a production house he co-founded with chartered accountant turned producer Subrat Ray in 2003, which is credited with over 1000 television commercials.

In 2007, Hostel, an ad film he directed for the Eye Bank Association of India won a bronze in the Film Lions (Fund Raising and Appeals category) at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Manish Bhatt and Raghu Bhat, co-founders, Scarecrow M&C Saatchi, an ad agency, wrote the script.

Rao mentions in his post that he does not work on acting projects throughout the year. He “wants to be in both worlds.”

Throughout his career, he has racked up an impressive portfolio that includes the likes of Taaza Tea (HUL), Britannia, Swiggy Instamart, Flipkart, and M-Seal, amongst others.

That it was a young creative’s hesitation about Rao’s availability is important because he is keen to work with them, but more importantly, wants to meet them face to face.

He has observed an influx of young talent into the industry in the past few years, but thanks to the Coronavirus-induced pandemic, all meetings were now on video.

“Before Covid, we used to have meetings, or we used to go to the office, that has slowed down a lot,” he rues.

These young folks who’re now helming indie agencies or running creative teams may know Rao or have seen his work. But the feedback he received was: “Are you still doing advertising?”

So, he felt announcing his eagerness to get back on the ad film director’s chair on social media was the right choice.

“15 years ago, if someone made an announcement publicly, it was considered taboo. It was more interesting to say, ‘We are very busy. We don't have time. If there is something, tell me, and I will try and do it.’ You cannot present yourself that way any more in front of the younger generation. It's a very open, transparent world right now. Everyone knows everything.”

He recently worked with the young folks at the independent agency Talented for Britannia and the young folks at Swiggy’s in-house creative team for Instamart (he makes an appearance in the ads).

Rao along with a Cannes Lions has picked up several industry awards, but he always looks at scripts and thinks about the kind of profile it has, and not if it will win an award or not.

If an ad script needs simple middle-class humour, that is how he makes it, and not an extravaganza keeping a Lion in mind. “When I get an email from an agency that this ad has achieved a certain number. Yes. that is the biggest award for me,” he states.

However, in this age of 10-15 second ads, how does he make sure each ad and its profile get its due? Rao first states, “If the client who is investing the money states, they want a 15-second ad, then it is our responsibility as a creative team, as a production team, and as a director that we do it.”

Rao recounts his early days when they’d made a 50-60 second ad even though the ask was for a 30-second film. They used to expect the client would be happy on seeing the film and would agree to run it “without realising there is a big commerce behind it; the media plan is different for 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 60 seconds.”

He has learnt to stick to the time like how most people learn on the job. The response, he says, to his post has been very good. “It is not that I am the best and please don't give your films to any other director and come to me. I am saying that I am still interested. I have some expertise, and I have shown results in the past.”

Rao counts the likes of Clint Eastwood and Amitabh Bachchan as his idols along with advertising folks like Balki, Agnello Dias, Santosh Padhi, and Manish Bhat.

“I cannot take it for granted that I am a decent ad filmmaker and work will come automatically to me. I cannot do that in today's time frame,” explains Rao.

He says people like Eastwood listen to the new era, what is happening, what are people doing, and that's why they work with younger people and keep reinventing themselves.

And while what worked a decade ago will not have the same effect today, Rao beleives in human emotion. Touch that, and you are set.