Airtel & Sharman Joshi - Baath karna baaki hai !

After 3 idiots, the scene has changed.. If Indusind bank roped in Omi Vaidya (Chatur for beginners ,if any), Airtel has taken in Sharman Joshi in what I would call as a brilliant move which but didn’t seem to be taking off… Brilliant because Sharman can easily be ranked amongst one of the most talented actors in Bollywood today. He tickled our funny bone with Style, Golmaal and Shaadi No. 1; played the high spirited guy in Rang De Basanti and then the rest is you know what !!!! Simply a dude with super cool attitude and effortless enacting of his fun of a role which made cinema goers sit up and take notice of him in 3 Idiots.

After having established a name as an actor, Sharman took the logical next step- brand endorsement. His first ever endorsement is for Airtel and when I read the story I felt a bit relieved that at last some fresh faces will now sell us this and that …. Tired of the old faces, I am sure people would feel great about new faces… Madhavan –the other actor in the 3 idiots trio, is also an endorser in his own style. Remember his romantic ads with Vidya balan… ?

When Airtel signed on Sharman, his immense popularity that he got after the roaring success of 3 Idiots was cited as the main reason and also the youthful and bubbly image that he has and which Airtel also wants to stretch to its young TG…. No wonder why the actor has been paid a whopping amount for the endorsement and soon after Airtel’s announcement came Nokia took him as well/ this time again with Adah Sharma ( who appears with R Madhavan in Joy Alukkas ads) as their latest brand ambassadors for their latest X series range…


The series so far has 5 ads .- Roaming, Night calling, Mobile internet ,SMS and STD services….see them here... But my trouble is not in the idea of Sharman, not even in the whole idea of “baath karne se hi baath banti hai”- talking only can make things work ( what an idea guys ooppsss sirji… ) I will give a standing ovation for these choices… My worry is that inspite of the guys next door boy looks, his boyish charm and the naughtiness, his mischief married with the plots the ads do not have the killer effect that they could have had if the creatives had pushed it a little more further..

The HERO convinces girls to YES him just by texting love quotes, sells 'his price' to a shop keeper by making him talk to his maaji, makes his dad agree to send him more money by emotional black mailing, again appeases his professor by praising his books on thermodynamics and hoodwinks an irate brother of his girl friend are all funny even though not very gulpable , just like that.. The ideas do not fully represent today’s guys true naughtiness and they don’t really and in total connect with the real guys of the real world ( who are these days locked in with the IPL matches and there are better ads that score well.. for instance) the yo yo guys are more creative, more convincing , more appeasing, more black mailing and more hoodwinking and you cannot even feel it…

They for sure are better than the Vodafone Zoo Zoo’s that have come back, the Idea Ungli chalao ads (from tree savers to fingering , Idea seems to have run out of ideas!..at a point I even thought that Idea will come up with 'Stop exams and save trees campaign'…!) .. Sharman and the Airtel ones stand out, but are they getting the place they deserve.. ? I doubt…

May be I am wrong and for a change I would be happy to be proven wrong!!!

As of now Airtel and Sharman is an awesome duo but we want more… because with a slight push you can give us that more… baath karna abhi baaki hai bhai !!!