Lights, Shahrukh, Action!

If Amitabh Bachchan told the nation India is Poised, Shahrukh Khan is urging Indian citizens to take action.

The campaign’s theme was conceived in Rishikesh, says Rahul Kansal, director, The Times Of India Brand, “The India Poised campaign was done at an appropriate time and managed to catch the mood of urban India. It was like a battle cry. The Lead India campaign aims to exhort young Indians to come forward and make India, the India of their dreams.”

Running across eight cities, the campaign started on August 15, 2007 and will continue till September 7, 2007. Within just 15 days the initiative has got 8,000 entries and they’re still coming in. Applications will be scrutinised by a panel of judges and the final eight will have to battle it out in the national final debate.

Says Kansal, “We want to identify a candidate who can fight the elections next year.” After having Amitabh Bachchan flag off the first phase of the campaign, Khan seemed a natural choice to take it further. “Shahrukh embodies the spirit of young Indians and his enthusiasm is contagious,” says Kansal.

Agnello Dias, NCD, JWT, explains, “Unlike the earlier campaign where the location and props were all well-planned, this one was more random. We would be on our way to the shoot and think up the script and props required; that is why you can see things like chai ka glass, crumpled paper and candles being used which are easily available.”

The campaign was shot in five days across Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore. Says Shoojit Sarcar of Red Ice Films, who shot the campaign, “We had buffered for a time of two hours to complete the shoot with Shahrukh, but he didn’t need any retakes and we managed to can his sequence within 25 minutes flat.”

While Khan’s the leading face, the campaign includes Sabrina Lal (sister of Jessica Lal), Javed Akhtar and Abhishek Bachchan besides Nandan Nilekani, Sunil Mittal, Sachin Pilot and Navin Jindal — all of whom have contributed their time to the initiative.

While it remains to be seen whether the winner of Lead India gets to be a part of the government, the campaign has brought together many like-minded people who want to accelerate India’s march towards becoming the next global super-power.

Preethi Chamikutty, TimesNewsNetwork