MAM
Kedaara Capital ropes in Unilever veteran Nitin Paranjpe as chief mentor and operating partner
MUMBAI: Private equity firm Kedaara Capital has appointed Nitin Paranjpe as chief mentor and operating partner, tapping into the expertise of one of the most seasoned executives in India’s consumer goods sector.
Paranjpe, who spent nearly four decades at Unilever, brings formidable leadership experience across operations, transformation, and global category management.
He began his career at the Anglo-Dutch FMCG giant in 1987 and went on to serve as CEO of Hindustan Unilever from 2008 to 2013—one of its youngest ever—and later held senior global roles including president of home care, president of foods and refreshment, and chief operating officer.
During his tenure, Paranjpe spearheaded multiple high-impact initiatives, from doubling business performance at HUL, to leading large-scale integrations and driving digitisation at Unilever globally. Most recently, he served as chief people and transformation officer at Unilever, where he led one of the group’s most ambitious restructurings in two decades.
In his new role, Paranjpe will work closely with Kedaara’s sector teams—especially in consumer and allied verticals—providing operational insight on both existing and prospective investments. He will also advise Kedaara’s senior leadership on strategic initiatives across the firm.
Paranjpe currently serves as non-executive chairman of HUL, and sits on the boards of global firms including Heineken and Infosys, further underlining the stature he brings to the table.
His appointment signals Kedaara’s intent to deepen operational value creation as a key lever in its investment thesis across India’s high-growth consumer landscape.
AD Agencies
Fevicol releases its last ad campaign by the late Piyush Pandey
The adhesive brand’s last campaign by the late advertising legend Piyush Pandey turns an everyday Indian obsession into a quietly powerful metaphor
MUMBAI: Fevicol has never needed much of a plot. A sticky bond, a wry observation, a truth that every Indian instantly recognises — that has always been enough. “Kursi Pe Nazar,” the brand’s latest television commercial, is no different. And yet it carries a weight that no previous Fevicol film has had to bear: it is the last one its creator, the advertising legend Piyush Pandey, will ever make.
The film, released on Tuesday by Pidilite Industries, fixes its gaze on the kursi — the chair — and what it means in Indian life. Not just as a piece of furniture, but as a currency of ambition, a vessel of authority, and a source of quiet social drama that plays out in every home, office and institution across the country. Who sits in the chair, who waits for it, and who eyes it hungrily from across the room: the film transforms this sharply observed cultural truth into a narrative that is, in the best Fevicol tradition, funny, warm and instantly familiar.
The campaign was Pandey’s idea. He discussed it in detail with the team before his death, but did not live to see it shot. Prasoon Pandey, director at Corcoise Films who helmed the commercial, said the team needed five months to find its footing before they felt ready to shoot. “This was the toughest film ever for all of us,” he said. “It was Piyush’s idea, magical as always.”
The emotional weight of that responsibility was not lost on the team at Ogilvy India, which created the campaign. Kainaz Karmakar and Harshad Rajadhyaksha, group chief creative officers at Ogilvy India, described the process as “a pilgrimage of sorts, on the path that Piyush created not just for Ogilvy, but for our entire profession.”
Sudhanshu Vats, managing director of Pidilite Industries, said the film was rooted in a distinctly Indian insight. “The ‘kursi’ symbolises aspiration, transition, and ambition,” he said. “Piyush Pandey had an extraordinary ability to elevate such everyday observations into iconic storytelling for Fevicol. This film carries that legacy forward.”
That legacy is considerable. Over several decades, Pandey’s partnership with Fevicol produced some of the most beloved advertising in Indian history, building the brand into something rare: a household name that people actively enjoy watching sell to them.
“Kursi Pe Nazar” does not try to be a tribute. It simply tries to be a great Fevicol film. By most measures, it succeeds — which is, in the end, the most fitting send-off of all.
