Ad Campaigns
Jim Sarbh gets replaced by Chacha Chaudhary in Cred’s latest ad film
Mumbai: Cred has launched its latest ad. But, this time it does not feature any of its usual line-up of Bollywood superstars or Sports celebrities. In a departure from its tried and tested formula, the fintech brand has released an animated film with the disclaimer ‘Not an ad’, featuring Indian comic book characters loved by many – Chacha Chaudhary & Suppandi!
The animation, created by homegrown animation and comics studio Bakarmax, has voice-over by the inimitable Raghubir Yadav, who reprises his Chacha Chaudhary’s role from the 2002 TV series of the same name. Actor-comedian Suresh Menon lends his voice for Suppandi’s character, while Chacha’s trusted buddy cum strong man, Sabu is voiced by Shivansh Bajaj.
The film follows the familiar Cred ad storyline with Chacha Chaudhary reading out Jim Sarbh’s lines about the benefits of making credit card payments on the app. However, Chacha, who’s renowned for his exceptional wisdom and whose brain apparently “works faster than a computer”, storms off the set as he finds the claims in the script too incredulous to believe. It is then left to the ‘director’ Suppandi to bring the old-timer up-to-date with the times we live in- from the social networking addiction, electric vehicles and cryptocurrency to global warming and climate change- Suppandi’s character doles out all the modern gyan.
Finally, Chacha Chaudhary is seen mulling over all his new-found knowledge in solitude and experiencing a moment of FOMO (fear of missing out). But not for long. The film ends on an amusing note as the affable Chacha Chaudhary reaches out to his trusted confidante Sabu, as he’s overwhelmed by all the new-age wisdom and reels out an instruction to the giant, to find out how he can get an NFT made for his brain!
The ad-film is directed by Vivekananda Roy Ghatak and the writing is credited to Rachit Varma, Adhiraj Singh and Sumit Kumar.
Cred product and growth Trupthi Shetty says the brand aimed to bring something unique to its consumers. “Cred is reinventing nostalgia by bringing something new to old with familiar personalities to encourage financial independence and literacy. We are delighted to work with team Bakarmax who came up with this concept, where we could bring in beloved characters from the ’90s to send across the messaging to our members and consumers”, she added.
Sharing the experience of collaborating with Cred, Bakarmax founder Sumit Kumar said, “The process of building a concept that would bring back nostalgia with our favourite characters with a twist has been a great experience. Highlighting the advancements in the financial industry through a different lens was refreshing. I hope Cred members and consumers enjoy the latest animated film.”
NATIONAL: Amazon Ads has laid out a sharply tech-led vision for the advertising industry in 2026, arguing that artificial intelligence, streaming TV and creator partnerships will combine to turn brand building into a more precise, performance-driven business.
At the heart of the shift, the company says, is the fusion of AI with Amazon’s vast trove of shopping, browsing and streaming signals, allowing advertisers to move beyond blunt reach metrics to campaigns designed around real customer behaviour.
“The future of advertising is not about reaching more people, but the right people with messages that resonate,” said Amazon Ads India head and vice president Girish Prabhu. “By combining AI with deep customer insights, we help brands move from broadcasting campaigns to having meaningful conversations wherever audiences spend their time.”
One of the biggest changes, according to Amazon Ads, will be the collapse of the wall between media planning and creative development. Retail media, powered by first-party data, is increasingly shaping everything from brand discovery to final purchase, pushing marketers to design campaigns around audience insight rather than internal instinct.
AI is also moving from a support tool to a creative engine. Agentic AI, which automates and accelerates production, is expected to make high-quality creative accessible even to small businesses, compressing weeks of work into hours and giving challengers the ability to compete with larger brands on speed and scale.
Behind the scenes, AI-driven analytics will take on a bigger role in campaign optimisation, identifying patterns, spotting opportunities and recommending actions that would previously have required teams of analysts.
Streaming TV is another big battleground. With India’s video streaming audience now above 600 million and connected TV users at 129.2 million in 2025, advertisers are set to treat streaming not just as a branding channel but as a performance engine, measured increasingly by sales, sign-ups and bookings rather than just reach.
Finally, Amazon Ads sees creators and contextual advertising reshaping how brands tell stories. Creators will act less like influencers and more like long-term partners, while scene-aware ads on streaming platforms will allow brands to insert hyper-relevant offers into the flow of what viewers are watching.
Taken together, Amazon Ads argues, these shifts mark a move towards advertising that is both more human and more measurable, where AI handles the complexity, and creativity does the persuading.
