MAM
Asian Paints says #SlamDoorsNoMore in latest campaign
MUMBAI: When it comes to doing up your house, doors and windows are often the most neglected part. The latest campaign rolled out for Asian Paints’ legacy brand Apcolite is all about encouraging you to have fun with your doors and windows, exploring an aspect of home decor that was hitherto largely untouched.
Tonic Worldwide has created the #SlamDoorsNoMore campaign for Asian Paints Apcolite Enamel which highlights how consumers have largely neglected their doors while concentrating on other areas of home decor. The digital campaign focuses on the life of a contemporary couple, where the wife is upset with her husband’s careless behaviour, venting her anger by slamming doors. In one such instance, a photograph of the couple also falls off the wall. In a bid to appease his wife, the husband transforms the door, replacing the boring nude shade with attractive colours and images, thereby transforming his wife’s mood as well, defusing her anger. Doors are not for banging anymore, rather, to be admired.
Asian Paints Chief Operating Officer Amit Syngle says, “Asian Paints has identified themselves as a partner for consumers in creating beautiful homes. Over the last decade, we have seen wall stencils and textures becoming an integral part of the home décor. Along with walls, furniture and other elements, doors also play a key role in accentuating the décor of one’s home. Ideas for doors is a simple, yet powerful element of a consumer’s decor journey.”
Tonic Worldwide Chief Business Officer Sudish Balan says, “As William Wordsworth said, if the doors of perception were cleansed, everything will appear to man as it is, infinite. This was the overarching thought, the way we treat our doors is a reflection of the environment we have created for ourselves. If a door is the first thing you see when you are about to enter your home, and if it pleases your cognitive sense, then it will elevate your mood too.”
Tonic Worldwide creative director Ashwin Dutt adds, “No one really bothers about decorating their doors, especially with stencils. You may use stencils on your walls but not your doors. Stencils for doors are a low involvement category and there needs to be a gradual change in perception. It’s a cost-effective way to spruce up the interiors of your home. As a marketer, you live for such briefs. No one even notices their doors. So, we decided to create some love for the product by creating a story around doors in every household. We noticed that our TG had a unique connection with the door. Doors are used as an expression of anger. It’s usually slammed in an argument to make a point. The idea was to narrate a tale that resonates with our audience and spur a conversation through our film. And that is exactly what comes out. With low involvement products it’s important to create communication that is relatable yet conveys the message”.
Brands
Tessolve lands a semiconductor veteran to drive its next big push
Ravi Kumar Chirugudu, who started his career at ISRO and has spent 35 years building chips and companies, joins the Bengaluru-based firm as president and chief operating officer
BENGALURU: Tessolve has never been shy about its ambitions. The Bengaluru-based engineering services firm already counts 18 of the world’s top 20 semiconductor companies among its clients, employs more than 3,500 engineers across 12 countries, and last year pocketed a $150m investment from TPG. Now it has hired the executive it believes can turn those assets into something bigger. Ravi Kumar Chirugudu, a 35-year semiconductor veteran who once built satellite payloads for ISRO and has since scaled engineering organisations across three continents, joins as president and chief operating officer, effective immediately.
THE MAN AND THE MANDATE
The appointment is, by any measure, a serious hire. Ravi Kumar Chirugudu comes to Tessolve after senior leadership stints at HCL Technologies, Altran and Wipro, where he managed large profit-and-loss portfolios and oversaw cross-regional teams. Over the course of his career, he has been instrumental in bringing more than 1,000 new products to market across the high-tech, energy and manufacturing verticals. Before the private sector claimed him, he began his working life as a scientist at the Indian Space Research Organisation, contributing to research and development in charge-coupled device technology and satellite payloads, a foundation that shaped everything that followed.
In his new role, he will lead Tessolve’s global growth strategy: expanding its engineering capabilities, deepening customer relationships and accelerating innovation across semiconductor and high-performance computing domains. The brief is broad, but the context is specific. Tessolve operates in the $550 billion global semiconductor market, and its recent moves, the acquisition of Germany’s Dream Chip Technologies and the TPG funding round, have sharpened both its reach and its expectations.
Srini Chinamilli, co-founder and chief executive of Tessolve, is characteristically direct about why Ravi Kumar Chirugudu was the choice:
“As we scale our global semiconductor and system engineering capabilities, Ravi’s appointment marks an important step forward. As global semiconductor demand continues to accelerate across industries, it is creating significant opportunities across the semiconductor lifecycle, from design, packaging, validation and systems integration. Ravi’s deep knowledge and leadership in this ecosystem brings the right mix of industry expertise, customer connect and execution capability, which will play a key role in strengthening our position as a trusted global engineering partner and reinforcing our market leadership.”
THE NEW ARRIVAL SPEAKS
Ravi Kumar Chirugudu, for his part, frames the move in terms of timing and culture, two factors that veteran executives tend to weigh as heavily as title or compensation:
“I am happy to join Tessolve at a time when the industry is rapidly evolving towards more complex, AI-driven systems. What stands out to me is its strong people-first culture and its commitment to bringing value to its customers. The strength of its global team, combined with its deep expertise in semiconductor innovation and next-generation product engineering, creates a solid foundation to build differentiated, scalable solutions. I look forward to working closely with the team to drive strategic growth and strengthen its role in shaping the global semiconductor ecosystem.”
The reference to AI-driven systems is not incidental. The semiconductor industry is in the midst of a structural reshaping, driven by the insatiable compute demands of artificial intelligence. For engineering services firms like Tessolve, which offers end-to-end capabilities from silicon design to packaged parts and invests in high-performance computing, high-speed interfaces, photonics and 5G, the moment is both an opportunity and a test. The company says it is well positioned to capture the next wave of industry growth. Ravi Kumar Chirugudu is now the person who has to prove it.
He came in from outer space, literally, and spent three decades learning how the semiconductor industry works from the inside out. Now Tessolve is betting that accumulated knowledge can help it cross the next frontier. In the $550 billion global chip market, the gap between ambition and execution is measured in engineering hours and leadership quality. Tessolve has just gone shopping for both.
