The sun had set on a warm sultry evening in the capital on 30 June, 2024. But the celebrations for ad veteran and media magnate, Chintamani Rao’s completion of half a century in the industry had just about begun.
Dr Annurag Batra, Chairman & Editor-in-Chief, BW Businessworld and Founder and Editor-in-Chief, exchange4media Group took the initiative of bringing the advertising and media fraternity together for this momentous occasion of Rao (fondly known as Chinta amongst his colleagues, friends and family), who along with completing 50 years in the advertising and media industry, had also celebrated his birthday a while ago – thus making it a dual celebration for him.
Rao spoke about how his career began in June 1974 – he still remembers his first day at work and his first job, very clearly. “I have never in these 50 years been sick on Sunday about Monday being the first day of the week to resume work, or my work ever!”
Thanking his wife, Reena and his family, he expressed, “In these years, we have moved across cities, countless times. Reena has been very integral to this great service. She was ready to pack bags and baggage, pack up kids, and move to the next adventure.
My two sons have had to bear the brunt of this. I went to the same school all my life - the entire 12 years of my school life, I went to Delhi Public School (DPS), Mathura Road. My two sons, have each been to five schools.”
In a chat with Dr Batra about the peaks and highlights of his career, Rao recalled his days spent with the doyens of Indian advertising - adman Late Alyque Padamsee; Late SR Ayer fondly known as Mani Ayer, former Managing Director, Ogilvy & Mather (O&M) India and Late Ranjan Kapur of O&M India.
As part of a special audio-visual for Rao, Piyush Pandey, Executive Chairperson, Ogilvy India pointed out Rao to be a ‘gentle giant’. He also went on to narrate an incident wherein he and Rao worked together on the first campaign of the former, which revived a lot of memories.
Some of the other renowned adland and media professionals who were a part of the celebration, included, Santosh Desai, MD & CEO, Futurebrands India; Avinash Pandey, former CEO, ABP; Rohit Bansal, Group Head of Communications, Reliance Industries (RIL); Rajul Kulshreshtha, CEO, Agilis Plus; Debashis Paul, Marketing Consultant; Amit Tiwari, Global Head of Marketing Demand Centre, Tata Consultancy Services and many more.
And when asked and told to speak a few about Rao, all of them, in common, spoke of one thing about Rao’s traits - that of Rao’s gentleness, wonderful sense of humour and calm, peaceful demeanour. Desai added, “Rao is the most clear-headed and among the sharpest critics of the world around us. He has a very clear perspective of what is right and what is wrong, and is not afraid to express it.”
When asked to speak a few words about Rao, Avinash Pandey was quick to point out the former’s calm approach. “When I was at Aaj Tak, he was quick to almost rip us apart at an event, questioning our sales ability by pointing out about the kind of clients/brands we were getting on board for our ads.”
Bansal reminisced, “When Chinta sir joined India TV, he told me that I could address him as Mr Chintamani Rao, and even Chinta – but not Mr Chinta. Well, that’s the name which stuck – Mr Chinta! He also made an India TV interview run on CNBC with due credit, by making a few calls – that’s Chinta sir for you!” He spoke about Rao’s way of viewing matters and situations in an out-of-the-box manner and described him as a resourceful man.
Rao’s family – his wife, Reena, his elder son Krishna with his wife Laila, Rao’s younger son and grandson, Kiaan – were present at the fiesta. When Reena came up on the dais to speak about Rao, she spoke about the various client parties she attended with Rao and about his fond connections with Piyush Pandey and Late Ranjan Kapur over the years.
The commemorative evening at India International Centre, New Delhi was well spent wherein Rao had a blast from his past, quite literally – something which he looks forward to carrying on further on as well.
