Tata Tea urges ‘small beginnings’; Shah Rukh promises to put heroines ahead in film titles

Tata Tea has brought in Shah Rukh Khan for a campaign created for Women's Day. The film has been created by Lowe Lintas and Partners.

The film opens with a female journalist interviewing Shak Rukh Khan. She starts off saying, “It’s women’s day, and all women love you.” He says, “And I love women,” in characteristic style. Asked for his views on women’s equality and women’s rights, Khan says that a woman should not be equal to man but ahead of him - in education, medicine, politics, engineering, media, and everything. The journalist asks him why it isn’t so in films, questioning the hero’s name appearing ahead of the heroine’s in the titles. At this point, Tata Tea’s Jaago re jingle starts playing in the background, the journalist asks the camera to ‘cut’, and Khan reaches out for his cup of tea and takes a couple of sips while thinking her question over. He asks the camera to start rolling, and makes a promise that in every film of his in future, the heroine’s name will appear ahead of his. The voice over says, ‘Bade badlav ke liye har ek ko choti shuruaath karni padegi. Tata Tea.’ The sign off frame says ‘Make a choti shuruaath at jaagore.com’.

On the TVC, Amer Jaleel, national creative director, Lowe Lintas and Partners, said, "Balki approached Shah Rukh Khan after the idea was thought of. Khan is not brand ambassador for Tata Tea, but was just brought in for this film. Tata Tea always pre-empts the mood of the nation with its campaigns. The current conversation in the nation is about women rights. Everyone wants to say something and do something, but nobody is taking a real step forward. We just want to say that if everyone takes a small step, in the long run it'll be a big leap. This is Khan's small step and gives people a model to emulate. If SRK can, everyone can."

He added, "What we are also hoping for is that other people in the film industry will also pick up the idea and implement it like a ripple effect. That will cause conversations and at the level where women get affected by inequality they get a handle to fight back quoting this example."

Sanjiv Sarin, regional president, Tata Global Beverages, said, “Tata Group has a rich heritage of being socially aware and conscious. The group has taken several measurable steps in the past in the awakening of women’s equality and rights. At TGB, it’s our constant endeavor to be fair and just to women as much possible. This is quite apparent in our Kannan Devan Hills Plantations Company (KDHP) where majority workers who are women have moved to being part owners of the company. Tata Tea has been running the Jaago Re campaign for over five years now and we have been successful in taking this brand beyond its physical and functional benefits. Jaago Re has been quite active in bringing to the fore the importance of electoral system or highlighting corruption in many ways and will continue to do so.

On Tata Tea’s association with Shah Rukh Khan, Sarin added, “We are delighted to have associated with Shah Rukh Khan, an icon who respects and is seen respected by women across the world. This initiative of ‘Baday Badlaav Ke Liye Choti Shuruaat’ would urge every individual to retrospect their attitude towards women in our society and take small steps to make this society more beautiful for the women to live in.”

Along with the film, a press ad was released in the edition of Hindustan Times dated 8 March. An activation and an internet campaign will follow soon.

Credits:

Client: Tata Tea
Agency: Lowe Lintas and Partners
National creative director: Amer Jaleel
Executive director: G V Krishnan
Creative team: Ateet Shroff, Shahvan Kaikobad, Aditya Tripathi, Nitin Sawant, Rushita Bhatadye
Account management: Ayyappan Raj, Kunal Madhavdas, Rumi Ambastha, Kshitij Mehra
Planning: Vikram Satyanath, Gulshan Singh, Russell John
Production house: Lintas Productions
Film director: R Balki