Play front foot: V. Sunil's tribute to Piyush Pandey

First time I saw Piyush's magic was at one of the award shows in Delhi where Ogilvy was suddenly coming into fame. This was the beginning of the revolution in Indian advertising and marketing. This was the beginning of Indian advertising's departure from very westernised thinking.

I was working at Contract those days and we were on top of our game and just started getting international recognition. But the big move Piyush was making then was more philosophical and it was a push back against the industry which was completely focused on aping the west.

Young creatives like us who were not very fluent in English always felt a little under confident in that environment. Ogilvy was slowly becoming a power house of great creative work, surpassing other agencies just by doing work that connected with the country in a deep emotional way.

I used to meet Piyush in Delhi at a friend's place and listen to his stories full of humour and one of those conversations led me to join Ogilvy Delhi as the creative director. Both of us had a very different sensibility and styles of working, but connected at a deep level. In my first week I had asked him about the culture and how I should go about navigating the system, and the answer was 'partner, play front foot'. That was a great piece of advice and I never looked back.

Piyush showed us how think and drive big ideas, how to build teams of great people and most importantly how to have fun working.

When I wanted to leave Ogilvy to start my own with a different structure from a traditional agency, he told me "I don’t want to com in the way of your dream" and offered many solutions including heading another office in another country, starting my own division within Ogilvy or set up a company within the system. It took me almost a year to convince Piyush and leave Ogilvy. He said "ho ke aaja". And i always knew if I mess up I could always go back to him.

Here's to my boss with big moustache, bigger balls and biggest heart.

(V. Sunil – Co-Founder, Motherland; Creative Director, POTNTIAL)