Ad Campaigns
Varun Dhawan reprises his judwaa role in the new Navratna Active Deo Talc ad
Mumbai: Navratna Active Deo Talc brings back Varun to play a double role in its new commercial. Brought to life by the film director, Vasan Bala, the film is a fun take on the Bollywood trope of a brothers’ reunion.
Conceptualised by What’s Your Problem, a Wondrlab company, the campaign showcases the benefits of Navratna Active Deo Talc in the summer season. With the double role of Arun and Varun, two long-lost brothers running towards each other, the film beautifully depicts what happens when one of the brothers doesn’t use the product, sweating profusely and trying unsuccessfully to keep himself cool.
V Kaushik Vedula, AVP-Marketing, Emami Ltd., said, “We wanted to leverage Varun’s signature fun style of acting. And what better way to do it than with such a filmy script. Bichede Bhaiyon ka mela main milan, but with a twist. So far, the audience reception has been extremely positive and of course, even the internal teams are very pleased with it. I think we have proved this film a worthy sequel to Judwaa 2.”
WYP Wondrlab India CCO & co-founder Amit Akali, and the content director Gauri Gokarn said, “Navratna Talc has had a legacy of creating iconic ads, including with Shah Rukh and Varun as well. So, it was a challenge making it different and yet keeping the essence of it intact. Given that Varun also starred in Judwaa 2, we found the perfect opportunity to recreate the filmy reunion. We even roped in Vasan Bala who did a fantastic job of making this a proper Bollywood act. And obviously, Varun’s spontaneity added a lot of fun to the film as well. This simply goes to show that people still love the good old Bollywood masala, there’s no need to always do something different, sometimes all it takes is a bit of fun.”
The campaign has gone live on all media channels and is making quite an impact on social media, digital and outdoor media platforms.
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.”
One of the biggest changes, according to Amazon Ads, will be the collapse of the wall between media planning and creative development. Retail media, powered by first-party data, is increasingly shaping everything from brand discovery to final purchase, pushing marketers to design campaigns around audience insight rather than internal instinct.
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.
