Business Description
A recent advertising campaign of Sahara India shot by Pradip Sarkar of Parineeta fame is making many sit up and take notice in India where the conglomerate’s long-drawn court battle with SEBI, the market regulator, routinely makes breaking news.
The campaign, shot across a wide canvas with booming drums, men and women dressed in black and white like lawyers running across expansive flyovers, eventually ends with what was once popular in India as Sahara Salute, the right arm fixed on the left shoulder like greetings of Roman kings. The Sahara chief worker, Subrata Roy, is in the frame, the gutsy tycoon even lending his voice to the campaign at the end.
For television channels, the advertisement is good news because it will be – obviously – telecast at a rate decided by media planners. Indian news and entertainment channels are picking up virtually anything and everything from the market. One more campaign before the onset of the festive season, expectedly, means one cheque for the beleaguered channels. But the campaign – in some ways – could also signify the return of the master campaigner, whose tagline was once Bharat Hai Hamara, Hum Hai Sahara. Now the group has a refined tagline.
There are chances that the conglomerate could regroup its workers and strength to get into new zones of business not banned by the market regulator. Roy himself has shown keen interest in aviation, it would be wrong to presume he would handover all his private planes and the license and not want to expand. His non-competitive agreement with Jet Airways will end in October, 2018. There are enough indications that Roy has started planning some serious moves, seeking advice from former airline honchos.
Sahara India has also renewed its focus on media, recalling its former news channel head to ramp up the operations and numbers in the Hindi heartland, the group knows there’s the crucial national election coming up amidst newspaper reports that the ruling NDA could advance the dates for a 2018 nationwide poll. Efforts are on to save Amby Valley, jewel in Sahara’s crown that came under the scanner of the Supreme Court. The group has also sounded out people that it would be keen to get on with its housing business across India and revive its half-finished projects.
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3d Industrial Animation
