Ad filmmaker Prahlad Kakkar on Friday paid tribute to advertisement legend Piyush Pandey, calling him his partner and recalling the laughter and camaraderie they shared.
"We were the most irreverent people in advertising. We never took ourselves seriously. We never took anybody else seriously. Whenever we used to meet, we used to laugh a lot. We used to laugh at the world. We always used to do that. I'll really miss that with him because he was my partner," Kakkar told.
Pandey, 70, died on Friday after suffering from pneumonia for several weeks, leaving the advertising industry mourning one of its most iconic voices.
Reflecting on Pandey's work, Kakkar shared how he took the bold step of creating an advertisement in Hindi against the client's wish. "He never used celebrities. He never believed in it," he said.
Kakkar added, "I'll miss him. We were a pair. Your life will live on. Your legend will live on because you have carved so many people's lives. He cultivated so many great creative people under him."
Other prominent figures, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, also paid tributes to Pandey.
According to relatives, Pandey had been suffering from pneumonia for the past few weeks. His condition worsened, and he passed away on Friday at the age of 70.
Pandey began his career in 1982 at Ogilvy & Mather India (now Ogilvy India), starting as a trainee account executive before transitioning to the creative side. With his talent, he literally changed the face of Indian advertising. He's the mastermind behind iconic ad campaigns like Asian Paints' "Har khushi mein rang laaye", Cadbury's "Kuch Khaas Hai", and Fevicol's iconic "Egg" film.
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