An ad-man, a scuba diver and a wannabe filmmaker, Prahlad Kakar is the man who dons many hats

Creative people, artists, are generally moody, and just a bit loony. You never know what to expect from them. Despite this notion of ‘crazy people in showbusiness’, I was not prepared for this one particular encounter with the country’s arguably best ad-man, Prahlad Kakar. There is eccentric and then there is Prahlad Kakar. Had it not been for a pair of “gorgeous legs” (yes, you read it right), Kakar would have probably been working in a big MNC. Heck! He would have retired by now. After graduating in economics from Fergusson College, Pune, Kakar had got himself a high-paying white-collar job. When he walked into the office, he found the office to be dull. “The women were so busy crunching numbers, they had no time to take care of themselves”. He had a “scary vision” of spending the rest of his life in the company of the “dull people”, more importantly, dull women, and walked out of the office. On his way out, he found a bunch of lunchers outside an office. From where he was standing, they looked a bunch of good-looking, fun loving people. He went ahead and chatted with them and came to know that they all worked for an advertising firm. He liked the people so much, that he decided to give advertising a shot. So he walked inside the ad office, on a supposed job hunt. This is exactly where he spotted the said legs, which belonged to the beautiful receptionist. “I told her that I had travelled through Delhi, Mumbai, and the world. Hers were the best pair of legs I had ever seen”. She was so flattered, that the receptionist decided to help the cheeky young man. Kakar got the job—and the rest as they say is history. Anyone who has seen Kakar speak on the TV shows will know how much he loves to talk. This is a man who is generous with words, so generous in fact that an interview does not have to do much. When I ask him about his one childhood memory which he still cherishes, he speaks of a Anglo- Indian teacher, whose classes he looked forward to. She was his first love. “I would wait for her to ask us to read something from the texts. And the moment she did, I would stand right next to her and start reading from the book, while my eyes would be fixed on her.” He then goes on to talk about the lavender talc she wore, how he still remembers the fuzzy feeling. After narrating the story of his first love, he asks me about mine. I am told that “This cannot happen one way, a conversation can only take place when both individuals share their stories.” It is evident from the recounted memory that he was quite the brat in his growing-up years. Owing to this behaviour, Kakar had earned quite a reputation by the time he was a teenager. His parents allegedly had little faith in him and always believed he would not do much in life. When he rejected the MNC job and took up advertising, their reaction was, “Only people who do not get respectable jobs, join advertising.” A harsh response indeed, but that did not stop Kakar. Unfazed by the brickbats, Kakar went on to become the country’s leading ad-man. If you believe that his success has changed his family’s opinion of him, think again. “They see me having fun everyday. To them, all I have been doing all this while is hanging out with pretty women, and having a gala time, while pretending to work. All the name I have made for myself, my family calls it a fluke,” says a laughing Kakar. His mantra is to have fun while working. “So much fun, that work stops being work. If more and more people start enjoying what they do, the world would become a more conducive and creative place,” he adds. At the beginning of his career, Kakar had the fortune of working under Shyam Benegal as his assistant director in films such as Ankur, Bhumika and Manthan. One day, Benegal decided go out on a personal errand, and left the whole responsibility of the shoot on Kakar. “I was sh*****g bricks. It was a huge responsibility and I was not sure how to handle it. I was running out of choice and had to do something anyhow. With nervous apprehension, I took charge and completed the job assigned. When we saw the result, it was much better than what I had expected. But had Mr Benegal not pushed me into it, I would have never done it,” he confesses. He recounts a similar experience of his first ad shoot. Had his boss not literally pushed him into directing an advertisement, he would not have become the man he is today. Despite decades of experience under his belt, he still feels the butterflies of his first shoot when an ad goes on to the floors today. “The moment I stop being nervous, I will know that the work has stopped exciting me. One cannot create something extraordinary without even a hint of nervousness.” Looking at the advertisements that Kakar has created, one has to agree that the spark was and is in him to create something extraordinary. Yehi Hai Right Choice Baby! or Yeh Dil Maange More are unforgettable lines. So why is it that we do not have commercials which stay with us for years? “The budgets are getting tighter, and clients are more insecure. They do not want to risk anything these days. Without risk there is no room for creativity. People do not enjoy watching commercials presently, because the makers are not having enough fun while creating them.” His life, certainly, seems like a joy ride. When I say so much, pat comes the reply, “It does not seem like a joy ride—it is.” Each day is a new day for Kakar. Each day he looks forward to doing something new, meeting new faces and embarking on newer adventures. One time in Mauritius, one of his friends asked him to come for a scuba dive. Kakar who knew nothing about scuba-diving, refused to go under water, but agreed for a boat ride. When his friend vanished under the sea midway, he got bored sitting alone. So he too jumped right in. “It was uncomfortable. The salty water stung my eyes and I was mostly on the surface of the water. I decided to go again the next day, but this time I was better prepared.” The next time when he hit the water, he stayed inside for full 15 minutes. As he says, “Those 15 minutes changed my life.” Once during a dive he found a Quran on the sea bed. Five years later, when he founded the scuba-diving institute—Lacadives—he established it on the only cent per cent Muslim island in Lakshadweep, Kadmat. Prahlad Kakar, as is evident by now, is a talkative man. And he is flamboyant too. For someone who talks mainly about women, water and work, it is hard to imagine him with a spiritual side. Allegedly, even people who know him cannot imagine it. Apparently, a friend who spotted him “hanging out” at the Isha Foundation Ashram, Coimbatore, yelled, “Hell! The guy doesn’t even believe in God!” Kakar came to meet Jaggi Vasudev, founder of Isha Foundation, by accident. When he did, he enjoyed the Guru’s company so much that he got hooked. When someone asked Jaggi Vasudev, how he got a man like Kakar interested in “the spiritual stuff”, Vasudev said, “Prahlad finally found a guy wilder than him.” Today, he is as involved with the Yoga Foundation as he is with his company and his scuba-diving institute. It is a mystery how he manages to juggle so many roles, so magnificently. His life, Kakar says, is like a Hitchcock film, except there are no murderers. He lives by one rule: “Time is the only thing which is not infinite, invest it properly,” he says. Ad film-making, scuba-diving, volunteer work for the yoga foundation— is there anything more that the man wishes to do next? Of course he does. There are “some wonderful film scripts” written by him, which remains to be made into films, he has not found the “right guy as yet”. But then, why convince someone else? Why can’t the best ad man do it himself, especially since he began his career as an assistant director to one of the most prominent directors of India? Kakar confesses that someone needs to push him into it. He can’t make films, as he is too nervous. Ladies and gentlemen, that’s Prahlad Kakar for you—hard to define, and harder to predict. As we get ready to wrap-up, he reminds me of the golden rule of communication—it happens two ways. As I dodge his questions, he sighs, and manages to leave me with a “relationship advice”. Like it or not, that’s how Kakar is—the enfant terrible, unpredictable and talented.