Ad Campaigns
Big B sings acapella style for Navratna
MUMBAI: Navratna Oil, the ayurvedic therapeutic cool oil brand from the house of Emami has launched Amitabh Bachchan in a never seen avatar of an ‘acapella’ singer.
In a brand new music video, Big B can be seen crooning to the iconic song ‘Sar jo tera chakraye’ from the film Pyaasa in an acapella style. Big B lent his baritone voice for this experimentation for the very first time in his entire illustrious career and has once again rewarded his fans with something to rejoice for.
Acapella is group or solo singing in choral style which is without instrumental accompaniment, where the background music is usually created by beats made by the human mouth, usually one linking to the other one, like hitting the floor, then the desk, then the wall to make a beat that goes together, while actually singing the song. Meaning “in chapel style” in Italian, acapella originated from religious music composed for use in chapels which, unlike large churches, had no organs to accompany the song.
Created by Leo Burnett Orchard and directed by Nitesh Tiwari of Dangal fame, the Navratna Acapella number sung by Big B has been digitally released on YouTube.
Emami director Harsha V Agarwal says, “The song and its portrayal of a barber offering relaxing champi has a very natural correlation with our brand Navratna which when applied for a head massage also offers instant relaxation from stress, tension, headaches and sleeplessness. It is almost as if the song had been written for Navratna only!”
Incidentally, the same song in a winning combination of Navratna and Bachchan as ‘Rahaat Raja’ created quite a stir last year in a TVC.
Tiwari adds, “The music format of acapella is growing in popularity among the young music lovers of today. We found that the rhythm of acapella style of singing has a very direct correlation with the rhythmic sounds and actions created by barbers while giving relaxing champis to their clients. Amitabh Bachchan, the brand ambassador, also got instantly enthusiastic on learning about this idea and promptly agreed to lend his voice to this experimentation. It has been a wonderful experience for all of us and we have released the music digitally to connect better with today’s consumers who are digitally active and also love Bollywood music.”
The Navratna portfolio consists of Navratna Oil, Navratna Xtra Thanda Oil, Navratna Almond Cool Oil and Navratna Cool Talc.
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.”
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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.
