MAM
Bang Bang Films directors Nic & Sune direct Ranbir in Axe‘s new commercial
MUMBAI: Axe Click‘s new commercial starring leading Bollywood actor Ranbir Kapoor has rolled out.
The ad has been conceptualised by BBH Singapore, produced by Bang Bang Films and directed by Nic and Sune.
BBH Singapore regional business development director – Asia Ara Hampartsoumian said, “It‘s never an easy task when an advertising agency is asked to not only replicate but actually improve on what was previously a globally successful ad, but the four key elements of client, agency, production and celebrity all aligned on this one and we delivered. BBH had a wonderful experience shooting another great spot for Unilever‘s Axe brand in Bombay. Our star Ranbir Kapoor was truly a pleasure to work with and Bang Bang Films helped hold it all together. Really fun, wouldn‘t have changed a thing.”
Earlier, Nic and Sune and Bang Bang have worked with Ranbir together a couple of years ago in Pepsi‘s “Youngistaan ka Wow.”
Bang Bang Films founder and MD Roopak Saluja said, “Having delivered a super-hit Ranbir spot with Nic and Sune in the past, they were an obvious choice for Axe. Not too long ago, Axe was a brand using global creative on Indian TV. To have the opportunity to produce an Indian spot with the same aspirational production values is a real pleasure for us at Bang Bang.”
Talking about the commercial, director Sune Maroni said, “Being asked to shoot an Axe commercial is an honour for any commercials director. Their spots offer cheeky humour combined with sophisticated visuals and have managed to capture a space in the collective consciousness of young people all across the world.
We‘ve been lucky enough to shoot with Ranbir Kapoor before, and it is always a pleasure to work with such talent, but for this film we had more time to have fun. The script allowed for some improvisation on his part and he never fell short when challenged to add the RK-touch. We don‘t think it was too difficult for Ranbir to imagine himself in a situation where he is being flirted with by a great number of drop-dead-gorgeous women. His life is pretty much like that of Vince in the celebrated TV-series “Entourage”. Maybe that could be his next project, an adaption of “Entourage” for India. We would love to direct that.”
AD Agencies
Abhay Duggal joins JioStar as director of Hindi GEC ad sales
The streaming giant brings in a seasoned revenue hand as the battle for Hindi television advertising heats up
MUMBAI: Abhay Duggal has a new desk, and JioStar has a new weapon. The media and entertainment veteran has joined JioStar as director of entertainment ad sales for Hindi general entertainment channels, adding 17 years of hard-won revenue experience to one of India’s most powerful broadcasting operations.
Duggal is no stranger to big portfolios or bruising markets. Before joining JioStar, he spent a brief stint at Republic World as deputy general manager and north regional head for ad sales. Before that, he put in three years at Enterr10 Television, where he ran the north region for Dangal TV and Dangal 2, two of India’s leading free-to-air Hindi channels. The north alone accounted for more than 50 per cent of total channel revenue on his watch, a number that tends to get attention in any sales meeting.
His longest stint was at Zee Entertainment Enterprises, where he spent over six years rising to associate director of sales. There he commanded the Hindi movies cluster across seven channels, owned more than half of north India’s revenue across flagship properties including Zee TV and &TV, and closed marquee sponsorships across the Indian Premier League, Zee Rishtey Awards and Dance India Dance. He also handled monetisation for the English movies and entertainment cluster and the global news channel WION, a portfolio that would stretch most sales teams twice his size.
Earlier in his career Duggal closed what was then a Rs 3 crore single deal at Reliance Broadcast Network, one of the largest in Indian radio at the time, before that he helped launch and monetise JAINHITS, India’s first HITS-based cable and satellite platform.
His edge, by his own account, lies in marrying data and instinct: translating audience trends, inventory signals and client demands into long-term partnerships built on cost-per-rating-point discipline rather than short-term deal chasing. In a media landscape being reshaped by streaming, fragmented attention and AI-driven advertising, that kind of rigour is increasingly rare and increasingly valuable.
JioStar, which blends the scale of Reliance’s Jio platform with the content firepower of Star, is doubling down on its advertising business at precisely the moment the Hindi GEC market is getting more competitive. Bringing in someone who has spent nearly two decades doing exactly this, across some of India’s most watched channels, is a pointed statement of intent. Duggal has spent his career turning audiences into revenue. JioStar is clearly betting he can do it again, and bigger.
