Rebel Foods’ Behrouz Biryani moves on from ‘secret recipe’ narrative to ‘making moments special’

Indrajit Ghosh, the brand’s global head – marketing communication and design, talks about the ideation of the ad and the demand for biryani in lockdown...

Cloud kitchen restaurant company Rebel Foods is out with a new campaign for Behrouz Biryani. Conceptualised by Tilt Brand Solutions, the campaign moves Behrouz’s narrative from a ‘Secret Biryani recipe crafted 2,000 years ago in an estranged kingdom of Behrouz’ to ‘The Royal Biryani that makes an occasion/moment special’.

The 45-second-long film features a newly married couple, who decide to celebrate the new beginnings in an orphanage, serving biryani to the kids.

Indrajit Ghosh, the brand’s global head – marketing communication and design, says that the film display the ‘true essence’ of the brand, i.e., ‘human moments (benevolence in this case) celebrated grandly’.

“The story also truly depicts how special moments are immortalised with the right mix of occasion, people and a unique culinary experience - a biryani recipe of royal heritage and long-lost origins.”

Rebel Foods is parallelly running two smaller campaigns - ‘Jashna-E-Behrouz’ (on the first weekend of every month, you will get a complimentary kebab platter and beverage) and ‘Mehfil-E-Behrouz’ (a group ordering a collection/platter of three biryanis+desserts+beverages+ decorative candle stands and a setting carpet).

The idea behind this, Ghosh tells afaqs!, is to push the main brand film to mass media and also drive brand salience by launching these sub-brand offerings to make the most of this month of celebrations and new beginnings.

He adds that the campaign is directed towards every biryani lover. But it primarily targets people in bigger cities because of its premium pricing, owing to the best quality long grain basmati rice, exotic spices and large portions of meat fillings.

When we asked him about the demand for biryani during COVID-induced lockdown, Ghosh shares, “Initially, the business did see a drop due to some knee-jerk situations across the country... The business picked up pace as the consumers were looking at safe food delivery options. With an initial dip in business by 40 per cent, we have now revived to pre-COVID levels…”

He added that since the brand falls under the purview of the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA), it was operational in most markets, subject to local authority rulings. “Our delivery fleet had helped us in reaching out to the customers and providing them with food when everything was shut. With markets slowly opening up, we are scaling our services to cater to the rise in demand.”

Ghosh says that the expectations of consumers have changed. “... If your brands and food are genuinely good, people will fall in love with them.”

Commenting on the campaign, Adarsh Atal, director - creative and content, Tilt Brand Solutions, reveals that the task was to repurpose the ‘The Royal Biryani’ positioning so as to modernise the brand in feel and appeal, without losing out on Behrouz’s royal origins and heritage.

“Given the task, we decided to have a fresh take on ‘Royalty’. The idea was that there are many every day ‘Rajas and Ranis’ out there that embody certain traits of royalty. Benevolence and empathy being two such traits,” says Atal.

“Just like the royal stories of old, the commercial was written using the familiar yet unique ‘kahaani’ format of ‘Ek tha raja, ek thi rani’. Narrated by Swanand Kirkire, the story brings alive the inherent benevolence and kindness in a newly married couple, who decide to start their life in a way that very few do, but both felt equally good about.”

Directed by Surya Balakrishnan from Footloose Films, the campaign will run across TV, digital and OTT platforms.