Interval kab ayega?: Sumanto Chattopadhyay recollects Piyush Pandey’s trademark comment
Sumanto Chattopadhyay, Former Executive Creative Director, Ogilvy South Asia, remembers his long association with the legendary Piyush Pandey
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Published: Oct 24, 2025 12:07 PM | 2 min read
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I first met Piyush in Kolkata. Decades ago. Piyush was on a chance visit to the city for a shoot (Tata Cement if I remember right) and I got the opportunity to present my portfolio to him. He gave the nod for my hiring at Ogilvy. And pretty much ever since then, he has been my boss. It has often been said that Piyush brought heart, and the Hindi heartland, into Indian advertising. While this is true, what is not said so often is that he taught the Indian ad industry something even more essential: how to write a script for a 30-second TV spot. In those days, many copywriters didn’t seem to have the hang of the film medium. It was left to the ad filmmakers to sift through what they had written and find nuggets to shape a film out of.
Piyush taught generations of writers the finer points of timing, brevity, emotion, humour and, most importantly, connecting with one’s audience. Many young copywriters (including me) would present these long-winded scripts to him. If the narration started dragging, he would make his trademark comment, “Interval kab ayega?” That’s how we learnt that to grab the attention of one’s audience—be it your boss or the consumer—one has to get to the point quickly. Simple as this sounds, it was crucial to creating great ads. Perhaps today these teachings are ingrained in every copywriter. But that’s where it started. I would like to think of this day not as the end but as an interval in Piyush’s journey. Because his legacy is truly undying.
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