India loves to hear stories, not sermons: Amit Syngle on ‘Saroj’ film

In a bid to promote its educational unit – Colour Academy – Asian Paints recently came out with a long format digital film, titled ‘Saroj – The Leader’. The film, conceptualised by Ogilvy & Mather, narrates the story of Saroj, who makes a leap from a beautician to become a painter with the training received from Asian Paints Colour Academy.

In conversation with AdGully, Amit Syngle, President-Sales, Marketing & Technology, Asian Paints, speaks at length about the campaign, the concept behind Colour Academy, the making of the film, the road ahead, and more. Excerpts:

What is the concept behind the Asian Paints Colour Academy?
Asian Paints Colour Academy is a world class training institution to provide training to the youth in the field of modern age paint application and decoration. Asian Paints aims to empower the applicants with the right set of skills to become employable as professional painting and decorating specialists and also generate more skilled artists in the paint industry through the institution. Asian Paints’ Colour Academy also builds on the Government’s ‘Skill India’ initiative of providing people with training in life skills to channelise them for appropriate job opportunities.

The Colour Academy provides training for over eleven different vocational courses in different skill sets like Basic Painter Course, Interior Designer Finishes, Waterproofing, Wood finishes, etc. Participants are given theoretical as well as practical training at the academy. This includes training using modern painting equipments, knowledge on paint products and handling material along with awareness on health & safety practices for themselves and others.

Please share the ideation behind the 'Saroj - The Leader' film.
The first Asian Paints Colour Academy started in Chennai over a decade ago. From that humble beginning, we have come a long way. Colour Academy is now present in 10 cities and the mobile version covering 10 remote geographies. We realized that Colour Academies were not just training painters; it was doing something more fundamental. A well trained painter understands his customer better, delivers a better site and over time becomes a more respected professional. Colour Academy provides these hard working professionals a sense of identity, belongingness, confidence and respect they have always found missing in them. And that is why we are promising to give names to faces through our social initiative campaign – “Naam hoga toh kaam hoga”.

Individuals get inspired and learn from each other. We decided to showcase the stories of some of them and inspire interested participants to learn the skills of the trade and turn into professional experts and thus change their lives. Saroj is our first such story where we presented a story of an ordinary Mumbai girl who not only changed her life with Asian Paints Colour Academy but also inspired many others as well.

An ad or a documentary - what made you go for the long format film?
The intention of the piece of communication is to inspire people to have confidence in their own self and believe in the possibility of transformation and liberation that can come through vocational training. We really wanted to bring the story of building self-identity and confidence to our audience, because that is what they will relate to.

India loves to hear stories not sermons, because stories bring out the reality of the situation. The long format documentary film allows for a genuine and comprehensive storytelling. In our film, which is based on a real life story, we wanted to show how Saroj transformed her life at Colour Academy and not be constrained by time. Given that, the long format of the film works well. The documentary film is more about Saroj’s story, than about the Asian Paints Colour Academy.

Why not use the real Saroj and her team for this film? Wouldn’t it have made the communication more impactful?
The film production requires professionals who the technical of film making. It’s a serious professional which requires trained and seasoned professionals to closely depict the story. We wanted the protagonist to present the story and not a narrator/ host. Hence, we opted for someone to depict the story as Saroj. We felt the story is the core of the film, not simply the character.

What was the brief shared with the agency?
The brief was to connect and relate to the audience to share with them an inspirational story of individuals who have taken steps to build their own identity and transformed their life. Core to the brief was the insight of the constant need of self-identity we as hardworking Indians face.

Through the brief we are able to give voice to the brand ‘Colour Academy’, the vocational training arm of Asian Paints that promises to transform unskilled labour into professional experts. The academy had anyways launched ‘Naam Hoga Toh Kaam Hoga’ its first recruitment campaign a year-and-a-half years ago. We wanted the video to carry forward this message and inspire interested participants to join the academy and change their lives.

Please tell us about the making of the film - the storyboard, music, shoot, etc.?
The 5 minute, 43 second film created as part of the ‘Naam Hoga Toh Kaam Hoga’ campaign shows the determination of a young girl who decides to put her career as a beautician on hold to take a leap of faith and explore the world of being a painter. On the advice of a close family friend who sees a beautiful rangoli made by Saroj, suggests that she explore the artistic side in her and encourages her to join Asian Paints Colour Academy. Saroj manages to convince a few women from her neighbourhood to enroll in the course and form an all-woman applicator team. The video goes on to show how Saroj and her team, after successfully delighting their first client on their first project, create more good work to impress hundreds of customers.

The film is directed by Rahul Dadda from the production house Filmicians. The background score and the anthem music have been composed by Rohit Sharma of ‘Ship of Theseus’ and ‘Buddha in a Traffic Jam’ fame. The film has been shot in Mumbai in real locations.

Will there be more such stories as part of the campaign?
Saroj is the first of a series of videos that we plan to release. Each story will be based on real life individuals who come from simple backgrounds and their lives change for the better after learning new skills and thus earn a better livelihood and respect.

What kind of brand traction has Asian Paints got with the Colour Academy?
Our aim was to connect to our secondary audience – the Indian middle class, who are really the guides and mentors of the working class of the country. The working class has been pivotal in seeding the ideas of modern living in the working class – like the importance of primary education, family planning, etc. We are banking on the secondary audience to spread the word about this initiative to our primary audience which is the working class or the labour class. It’s a long term strategy.

We have been receiving splendid comments and reviews on social media, where it is spreading like wildfire. We have seen the video grown mostly through social media sharing and hardly had to promote it commercially.

How many painters has the Colour Academy trained till date?
Asian Paints has trained lakhs of people over the past decade and given people the opportunity of a better livelihood since that time. Colour Academy as a brand came to life in 2014 and has touched the lives of more than 30,000 people since taking its current inspiring form.

What next can we expect from Asian Paints?
Asian Paints has been always been alive and central to the lives of people and we understand them deeply. This is visible across all our initiatives. We always do things keeping society in mind and our stakeholders in consideration of all our actions. It can very well be expected that Asian Paints will continue to be the responsible and caring citizen of the society. We will continue to do and share things which will benefit the society.