7 Great Ads You Didn’t Know Were Made By Bollywood Directors

What do Shakun Batra, Rajkumar Hirani and Shoojit Sircar have in common? Diverse filmography apart, these directors have all dabbled in advertising at one point, crafting ads for brands such as Lavie, Dettol and Boroplus. It's a lucrative business – in a 2016 interview, Sircar said that while cinema elevates him spiritually, he makes enough money from ads to survive. We take a look at some of these directors' best advertisements:

1. Dibakar Banerjee's Eno ad

In his 48-second-long advertisement for the antacid brand, the Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! director depicts an actor whose stage performance is interrupted by a bout of acidity. The protagonist's exaggerated antics and the audience's reactions to them make this ad not just funny, but memorable.

2. Nitesh Tiwari's Anchor Toothpaste ad

The 2015 ad, directed by the man behind Dangal, showcases a young boy taking on an autowallah who tries to fleece foreign tourists. Child actor Naman Jain, best known for his performance in Zoya Akhtar's segment of Bombay Talkies (2013), is the star here. Watch it for his chutzpah and sass, set against scenes of a typical Indian market.

3. Anurag Kashyap's Coca Cola ad

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8prQcl9Dbo

Deepika Padukone and Farhan Akhtar share the screen in the Mukkabaaz director's 2014 ad, which depicts them as two strangers who share a lighthearted moment. Despite its short run time of 47 seconds, the ad manages to tackle societal conventions deftly. By the time it ends, it will leave you with a smile.

4. Shoojit Sircar's Cadbury ad

Cadbury advertisements are synonymous with Amitabh Bachchan, but none manage to elicit a chuckle quite like this one does. Helmed by the October filmmaker, the 2006 ad fits in shots of the opulent village sets, a short appearance by Nawazuddin Siddiqui and a twist in the tale in its run time of 57 seconds.

5. Neeraj Ghaywan's Vicks ad

In a interview last year, the Masaan director said the brand wanted to subvert its own classic image of a "caring heterosexual mother tending to her child" and make something relevant to contemporary times. What resulted was a moving ad about a transgender woman (played by Gauri Sawant) and her adopted daughter, who narrates the good times they spend together. The ad is nearly four minutes long, and there's not a second where it doesn't brim with warmth and affection.

6. Ram Madhvani's Happydent ad

This quirky ad for a chewing gum firm won its maker, the director of Neerja, the Cannes Lion in 2006. It depicts a kingdom in which streetlights, cars' headlights and the chandeliers are all illuminated by the bright smiles of the population. With a catchy background song rounding it off, the ad was also declared to be one of the best 20 ads of the 21st century, according to the Gunn Report.

7. Anurag Basu's Gatsby ad

Titled Bollywood Spoof, this 45-second-long ad sees Varun Dhawan skydive, survive a war zone and reenact the Chaiyya Chaiyaa dance atop a train – with not a hair out of place at the end. The Jagga Jasoos director makes it hard not to appreciate his elaborate set pieces and Dhawan's cheeky refrain.