Advertisements and Films in India

Priyamav

When I arrived in Bangalore in the August of last year for an internship I was approached at the Brigade Road Coffee Day for a TV advertisement for Rin Detergent. As I thought it would be a fun experience I said yes to it and found myself the next day with a group of 8 foreigners (tourists and also foreign students in Bangalore) on the way to a set. It was quite a ridiculous show (we had to dress up in angel-outfits and lip-sync to a song about how white someone shirt was in both tamil and hindi), but a very fun experience, plus I made a few friends. It was 3000,- for a full day of shoot, but still fun!

From the foreign students living there I heard it was quite a common thing: advertisement people look for foreigners for ads, because they have a different look (among that foreign group was also a thai girl and an arabic guy - so it was not just a 'white' thing, more a 'different' thing)...plus most people will think it's a fun thing, tourists will have something to tell 'back home' so they can underpay them quite royally! Everybody seems happy!

After that it happened a lot for some kanadda and tamil movies. But it usually meant going to far-off areas for shooting and would take several days....and would pay way less than advertisements.

Is this just a thing in Bangalore? (student friends of mine residing in India say that's how they make some extra pocket money...it seems quite a common thing). Other people have experiences here? My bosses said that back in Delhi they would be approached for that sort of thing quite regularly.

On one occasion I went for a photoshoot in some small shop on Brigade road, and I was told it was for a Toyota ad. They were making head shots of loads of people and would after pick which pictures would end up in the ad. They paid Rs 1,000 for the 20 minute shoot, and if you actually ended up in the ad, you would get more. I didn't hear back from them. Then a friend calls me and says: you're in the newspaper! And within a period of 2 weeks the ad is in all major magazines, national news papers and even billboards all over India.
It was quite interesting! But I never heard back about a payment...and couldnt reach the advertising agency. I eventually contacted Toyota and got the agency to give me and two friends who were also in it Rs 5,000 a person.
Absolutely ridiculous for an ad with that much exposure, but then again I wasn't legally allowed to make money anyway...My only problem was that the picture they used was a bit silly, definitely over-expressive (but that's common in Indian ads and films). I had to pretend I was looking at the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen, something that struck me in total awe...that beatiful thing was the Toyota Innova, yuck!

For those of you who wants a good laugh, go here:

Print ad
http://www.toyotabharat.com/media/in...pad_launch.jpg
(left side, 4th picture from the top)

Brochure 1
http://www.toyotabharat.com/media/in.../inn_6-bro.jpg
Brochure 2
http://www.toyotabharat.com/media/in.../inn_4-bro.jpg
(most embarassing!!)

Just before I left I got a call for an Airtel ad in Cochin. I just couldnt believe how easy it was to do stuff like that. And it seemed like a common thing as I heard of quite a few tourists and foreign students in India that did this type of thing....definitely not something to make a living of, but still...

guerik

Hehe, they're great! I don't think I'll be hiring that particular agency for my ads though

Priyamav

haha, you got that right...you should have seen the advertisement agency that dressed us up in white robes to stare in amazement (over-expressive!) at some bollywood-actor wearing a white shirt (OBVIOUSLY washed with Rin) and then start singing to him...

Anyways...if you're a tourist, have some spare time on your hands, then go hang out at Brigade road, Bangalore, and become a star! haha

lonelyaztec

Priyamav,

Why r u embarressed ?

They arn't that bad !!!

Its okay for fun.

See, if u were a female with a good figure, then, you could have got lot of opportunities to become a Bollywood extra - the people who dance behind the hero & heroine in the song sequences.

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Aztec

My photoblog

mercedes10

Priyamav - do you have any contacts for agencies that you could pass on? I'm keen to get involved in this kind of thing when I'm in India. I have several years modelling and TV experience here in the UK, but have no idea how to break into the industry in India. Thanks! :-)

P.S. You shouldn't be embarassed of your Toyota ad. It's great! Cheesy yes, but that's typical of that kind of thing! It's very high profile for a big brand - you should be proud!

Priyamav

All in all it was great fun. Seeing yourself on a billboard is just too silly.

Mercedes10, I didn't really have a contact agency...I was either approached on the street or I was called by someone who was part of an ad I did before.
Each time it was a different 'scout'...someone who usually had a full-time job, but on the side did some scouting. An advertisement agency would ask him to look for certain people and he would get 1/5. So if the advertisement agency was gonna pay me Rs 1000, he got a Rs 200.

So I don't have any contact numbers for you, other than to go to Brigade Road in Bangalore and look for a guy named Ravi at the Louis Philippe shop. Other ad stuff I got through Iranian friends of mine who were studying in Bangalore and did stuff like that on a regular basis. They would call me if there was 'something happening'.

Two weeks before I was to leave India I got a call from a guy who was part of the Rin Commercial, asking me if I was available for an Airtel TV commercial. They wanted a commercial to target foreigners and tourists in India for Air tel prepaid services. It sounded so great: they would fly me to Cochin, set me up for a weekend at a hotel, do the shoot, and then monday be back at work. Eventually it got postponed till 2 weeks later, after my flight back to Europe. So I missed out on that.

So I don't have any numbers for you...just that you should hang out in a certain area for a while (you never know when these ads pop-up), and once you get one thing going more will come. The people I know that do this stuff on a regular basis are connected to some sort of agency, but I am not sure what it is. I was there for just a few months. But they're ALWAYS looking for people for movies, albeit small kanada and tamil movies. Beware: it often does involve dancing!

January I will be moving back to Bangalore, and once I'm settled there I will collect some phone #s of advertisement scouts. Maybe other travellers would be interested in stuff like that too.

mercedes10

Thanks for the info! I wont actually be spending much time in Bangalore this time round, but am hoping the same things might be possible in Mumbai (where I'll be for a longer period of time!).

kiranlal

Priyamav i have seen your advt. it is nice that you r there and it is funny too. the add director has done a nice job.
there is a lot of foriegners are acting in Music albums , and that is heating up the deshi (indian)models , and these babes will show little bit more than the indians could show ,so the indians are also trying their level best to compete with Foriegn models interms of what they could show
now a days they are complaining about the legal status of forigners to work in india , because they claim that indians are also not allowed to work if they go abroad in tourist visa
personally i welcome all nationalities to work in india , and in modeling you can allways find loopholes to , solve these working permit problems , no one can stop you if dont sign any kind of receipt for your payments,

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