Adland Rockstars: Ratin Dasgupta

Ratin Dasgupta worked at McCann Erickson and Rediffusion Y&R Mumbai before moving to Bangalore in November 2008 to join JWT. He takes time out of his weekend to tell Campaign India about being a copywriter and why he digs it.

1. How did you get into advertising? What’s your career path been like?
I've always wanted to be a writer but was too damn lazy to actually write anything longer than a few paragraphs. And in advertising, one can play Counterstrike and Foosball all day and still call oneself a writer. Sounded like a career made-to-order for me. It's been over 7 years now and I'm happy to state that they still aren't on to me.

2. What’s the difference between working in advertising in Mumbai and Bangalore?
No difference at all. In Mumbai, you have all these kickass Maharashtrian art directors who can't speak a word of English. And here in Bangalore, all the kickass art directors don't speak much besides Kannada.

3. What’s been your favourite/most satisfying campaign you’ve worked on till date?
The ING Vysya film campaign that I worked on last year.

All these years, I've been presenting funny scripts that clients would appreciate the hell out of but never show any real willingness to do. But ING was pretty clear that if they had to stick out, they would have to do things differently. And yet they were never about "Shoot the film this way" or "Write the script like this". That was THE most satisfying aspect of making the campaign. That allowed Ram from Nirvana Films to bring the films alive in the most entertaining manner possible.

4. Any international TVCs/campaigns you’d have loved to have your name on the credit list for?
Gatorade Replay, Halo 3 film campagn (the ones directed by Neill Blomkamp), Coca Cola happiness factory, Nike Chalkbot, HBO Voyeur. I could really go on and on.

Watch them here (interview continues below)

Gatorade

Halo 3

Coca-Cola

Nike Chalkbot

HBO Voyeur

5. What’s the one thing you love about your job?
That feeling you get when an idea comes at you from nowhere and strikes you in the head with a sledgehammer.

6. What’s the one thing you don’t love about it?
Filling timesheets.

7. Who’s the one person in advertising you’d love to have a working dinner with?
Thanonchai Sornsrivichai of Phenomena Films (Bangkok) as I'm a big fan of his work.

8. What do you like to do outside of advertising?
Oh many things. I play and write music, take a lot of bike trips, watch good cinema, read, cook...(all the creative people cliches)