Collaboration Case Study: Behrouz Biryani X Thums Up with insights from Mile Sur Mera Tumhara

Every month our Upshot Brand Media team has some discussion related to the fields of branding, advertising, media, PR, design, content etc. meet and share their views. The first aspect touched upon was to gain clarity on the concepts of collaboration, influencer marketing and partnerships. While influencer marketing is a different aspect altogether, collaboration and partnership get confused looks. Collaborations are short-term and last for a particular point of reference while a partnership can be long-term and involve more commitment from both parties.

 

Two cases were taken up - Behrouz Biryani and Mile Sur Mera Tumhara campaign

 

Behrouz Biryani shook the biryani market in India with a simple trick of storytelling. The highly fictionalized account seemed so real and present that people actually began to go to their website to read it. The story was put out in a piecemeal way and people would pace their reading until the next instalment of the story.

 

Today also Behrouz markets itself well with celebrity endorsements and other regular ways despite facing competition from Biryani By Kilo and other local biryani outlets and food shops who are holding up the flavor. So what’s new by Behrouz Biryani that’s catching our eye?

 

The 2023 World Cup had arrived and Behrouz put in a campaign that was in collaboration with ThumsUp. 

 

How does Biryani add up with Cola?

 

This was the first question that came up in our minds. The usual combinations with Biryani are raita or salan. By a stretch, the other combinations would be a sweet or pizza or perhaps even a burger. But a cola? The reaction was “It’s unusual” and the discussion went into the territory of why they did this. One possibility explored was to time the ‘dinner time’ with ‘casual doston ke saath time’ making these two brands connect with each other. 

 

Whenever we talk about any collaboration, there are two essential points -
Reliability
Relevance

 

Relevance burns first into the pockets of the consumer. Will they take up the dual aspects of Biryani and Thums Up?

 

Reliability factors in when one wants this campaign as a shot thing or wants it to last forever - forever as in changing the way we eat. 

 

When both ways the campaign is combined it makes a lot of sense. Take the most successful and memorable campaign so far - Mile Sur Mera Tumhara.

Mile Sur Mera Tumhara was a tremendously large campaign involving film stars, sports persons, performing artists and more. With more than 150 persons in filmmaking as well as famous personalities to be involved; it is definitely one of the most ambitious collaborations to date.

 

Different sources state that - 

 

Legend has it that the idea of ‘Mile Sur Mera Tumhara …’ was born in a conversation between Rajiv Gandhi and Jaideep Samarth, who was a personal friend of the then-Indian Prime Minister. Jaideep (brother of actresses Nutan and Tanuja, uncle of Kajol) was a senior executive at Ogilvy Benson & Mather (OBM). He took the idea to Suresh Mullick, the national creative head of Ogilvy. Suresh in turn called in Kailash Surendranath, the top film producer of the day. Both of them then went to visit Pandit Bhimsen Joshi to request him to get involved in this mega-project. Piyush Pandey, a young account manager at Ogilvy, it is said, was assigned to manage Pandit Vinod Sharma, who was charged with writing the lyrics. Vinod was very fond of his drink, and most times the writing of the lyrics would take a back seat. This encouraged Piyush to take a shot at attempting the song lyrics himself. Piyush eventually penned ‘Mile Sur Mera Tumhara …’. This incident was eventually responsible for his shift to creative from client-servicing, and his subsequent meteoric rise thereafter at Ogilvy.

 

Kailash Surendranath remembers .....

 

Not very many people know that the opening shot of ‘Mile Sur Mera Tumhara …’ is at the same waterfall where I shot the Liril commercial. Also, I have never told anyone that while the likes of Bachchan were lining up to shoot for this project, I had one Bollywood actor actually say no to me. (Hesitates). Yes, Naseeruddin Shah declined to be featured, saying the film was ‘political’. Another interesting incident I remember is that I recorded the song with Kavitha Krishnamurthy for all the lip-synchs by the various actresses. But I was very keen to have Lataji sing. She was travelling and it looked difficult for her to work with us within our schedule. But she changed things around and made it back to Mumbai just 2-3 days before we were to go on air. She arrived at the studio in her Indian flag-pallu white saree. I shot and recorded her in the studio in that dress and that is what you see in the film. My most memorable shot in the film is the aerial shot of the Taj Mahal. No plane is allowed that close to the Taj. I went to see the Air Marshall in Agra. He agreed and, in fact, gave me an IAF helicopter. Despite being a Doordarshan film blessed by the PMO, the poor guy got into trouble and was hauled up. He called me and I agreed to pay for the helicopter just to get him out of a spot.

 

In the background of glitches and barriers, imagine creating a campaign on such a huge scale with people from different fields. It’s definitely something of an awe to think of. If you read history, the relevance of this collaboration was spot on when India was reviving itself in the post-independent and globalization era. Relatibility was captured taking in famous personalities from all walks of life. 

 

Can you think of a better collaboration than this?