MAM
Nestle India rolls out a new campaign featuring Virat Kohli and Balakrishna Vaali
MUMBAI: The first campaign with Virat Kohli amplified the crunchy experience of Munch and was unique. It featured Vaali as a commoner with no special talents, a boring life and he loves crunching on Munch. His moments of excitement and fame are only because of the big ‘Crunch of the Nestle` Munch. The new campaign that has just been launched continues to reinforce the proposition of ‘Mera Crunch Mahaan‘. It revolves around the explosive crunch that triggers excitement through a fresh treatment.
The commercial opens with Virat Kohli who is in an elevator with his manager. Kohli clearly loves eating Munch but just as he is about to bite into the chocolate in his hand there is an explosive sound of a ‘crunch‘. Virat and his manager both turn towards the source of this sound and find Balakrishnan Vaali, ‘crunching‘ his Munch totally oblivious to the presence of the other two. The manager notices the ‘strangest of coincidences‘ and points out the similarity between Vaali and Kohli that they not only look the same but they both like crunching on Munch and says, “Aap dono toh same to same…Munch kha rahe ho sir !” to which Kohli cannot agree more.
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JWT India, ECD Nitin Pradhan says, “The excitement of the moment comes from the crunch that makes viewers, Virat and his manager realise the ‘strange coincidence‘. It was a more refreshing way for us to show the actual celebrity in all his glory along with the lookalike character. The interaction is not a typical fan-meets-celebrity piece which is what makes it a more interesting watch. In fact, Vaali doesn‘t even notice Virat in the spot. Over here, the product still remains the focus of the message, being the subject of the ‘interaction‘. The love for the ‘Crunchiest Ever Munch‘ leads to another exciting moment. Which was the point of our communication.”
Nestlé India head corporate communications Himanshu Manglik said, “The quality of the crunch is a key differentiator of a wafer chocolate and over the years, the tag line for Munch – ‘Mera Crunch Mahaan‘ has become strongly entrenched in the minds of the consumers. Earlier this year, we renovated the portfolio making it crunchier and launched the product – Munch 4X4 made from four rich layers of wafer and chocolate layer. We felt that as a successful cricketer and a youth icon Virat Kohli would enable us to build on this ‘crunchier‘ personality of Munch.”
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On the challenges faced while executing the TVC campaign Pradhan added, “The basic creative challenge was to use Virat Kohli and the character of Balakrishnan Vaali (also him) in a fresh and engaging way together, while keeping the product message central. While shooting, the main challenge was getting the implicit humor of the plot in the performances without letting it go overboard. The idea is to engage people, especially youngsters with a fresh kind of humor which involves a popular celebrity. Sports celebrities aren‘t seen that often creating humor on screen. So, that is sure to create some impact. “
“A manager spots his celebrity‘s lookalike in a lift. He seems to be awestruck by the ‘coincidence‘ but the moment he speaks, it gets revealed that he was noticing the (common) brand of chocolate they were consuming and not their faces. Also, the intent was to not be too in-your-face with the humor, yet creating some recall.” Pradhan concludes.
The new campaign is live on television with a heavy media plan. The TVC has gathered close to 300,000 views on YouTube and has integrated in other digital vehicles like Facebook and Twitter. The promotional plan would be supported by mobile promotions and radio.
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IICT partners with Gativedhi to bring studio production tools to students
New MoU lets students explore AI-driven production pipelines for AVGC-XR
MUMBAI: The Indian Institute of Creative Technologies (IICT) has teamed up with Gativedhi Technologies to give students a front-row seat to modern studio production. The collaboration will integrate Gativedhi’s AI-powered production intelligence platform, Shotrack, into academic programmes, letting students experience the workflow systems used by animation, VFX and gaming studios.
Under the MoU, faculty, students and researchers will get hands-on access to Shotrack through beta programmes, pilot deployments and academic evaluations. This will allow them to explore simulated production pipelines, understand asset management, track tasks and monitor schedules, essentially seeing how complex projects come together behind the scenes.
Shotrack is designed to tackle a key industry challenge: when multiple studios work on the same project, differing internal systems often create bottlenecks, slow approvals and complicate version control. The platform provides a unified production environment, enabling smoother collaboration across distributed teams while generating operational insights and predictive analytics to optimise crew allocation, forecast schedule risks and manage costs.
The collaboration also opens doors to Gativedhi’s wider ecosystem. Upcoming tools include StudioTrack, for studio operations management covering budgeting, recruitment and IT infrastructure, and WorkTrack, which measures workflow efficiency and team productivity across industries.
IICT plans to embed these tools into programmes covering animation pipelines, VFX workflows, gaming production and media project management. Students will also benefit from guest lectures, masterclasses, workshops, internships and research projects that connect academic learning with real-world studio practices.
IICT CEO Vishwas Deoskar, said the partnership provides “An environment where production pipeline tools can be explored, tested and refined while students gain insight into how large-scale productions are organised.”
Gativedhi Technologies founder & CEO Senthil Kumar added, “This collaboration introduces students to real-world studio management tools and helps us improve our platform with academic feedback.”
With Shotrack in classrooms, India’s future animators, VFX artists and gaming producers will get a taste of studio life long before they step into one.
