Meet Sunil Vysyaprath, the adman who coined Make In India

It is countdown to Make in India Week February 1318 in the city and the mascot mdash the lion made of gearlike chakras mdash is on the prowl at Bandra Kurla Complex BKC It is hard to pin down Make in India Week in a few words but here are the facts the city is undergoing a facelift BKC will host the headquarters where investors will converge hoping for a lionrsquos share of the future of Indian manufacturing Maharashtra Night is on Valentinersquos day there will be a generous sprinkling of art and design events Call it a carnival or business convention but Sunil Vysyaprath terms it Mumbai TakeoverSunil Vysyaprath PicBipin KokateHe is a man of catchphrases and this is not his first project The adman put the exclamation mark in Incredible India in2001 loaned Royal Enfield the iconic Trip series turned IndiGo Airlinesrsquo snack boxes into witty collectibles and more recently sold us the idea that has been received as Modirsquos ultimate pet projectAt 49 Vysyaprath is a determined strategian His ad strategies put a glamorous spin to what could have been drab sarkari affairs The slick Make in India launch in September 2014 replete with a mobilefriendly website and a 24foot LED screen was proof enoughAt BKC preparations are on for Make in India Week PicSameer MarkandeWe caught up with Vysyaprath three days after news of his moving out of Weiden Kennedy Delhi hit the streets Edited excerpts from the interviewQ How was Make in India bornA It was started a year and a half ago The government wanted a campaign for foreign investment and to push for better manufacturing So even we had ideas like Invest in India mdash all the classic clicheacutes Somewhere we came up with Make in India Some people thought it sounded incorrect Some people wanted a tiger for the logo for no reason at allQ Because itrsquos the national animalA And also because tigers are dying Then we thought of the lion because it is on your passport and currency itrsquos the strongest symbol we ever had If you look at our history as a strong symbol ndash there is nothing Even for our 50th year of Independence we did that little swirly tiranga ndash that has been our style We wanted to tell the world that India is now more than just readyQ You mentioned there were concerns about lsquoMake in Indiarsquo being poor English Was Made in India an optionA I told my friend Mohit Jayal director Weiden Kennedy Delhi Here is the idea Make in India He said That sounds like incorrect English but it could work Then I called up Amitabh Kant secretary of Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion DIPP He asked Sure na I told him it would make it to newspaper headlinesQ What do you think the public sector image needsA Earlier it would just go to the Directorate of Advertising and Visual publicity DAVP That was their agency In the last10 years the government has been going to independent agencies I have been lucky there is someone like Amitabh Kant With him and the governmentrsquos backing yoursquod be a fool not to take up something so ambitiousQ While Make in India sounds muscular and industrial you seem to have introduced a lot of art and culture in Make in India Week WhyA If you donrsquot bring design and art into Make in India you cannot get young people excited about manufacturing Secondly thi 0s time people are coming here to invest We need to show them what Mumbai is made of For example there is a historical textile show by top designers planned at CSMVS galleries are going to be kept open and so on Without design and aesthetics manufacturing remains just manufacturingQ What you speak of mdash quality design mdash is also the criticism that Make in India has received In 2014 RBI governor Raghuram Rajan warned that it is not enough to focus on an export driven market This week Nobel Laureates at the Indian Science Congress Mysuru have stressed the importance of Discover in India and Invent in India and not just Make in IndiaA A lot of international products such as Airbus parts and landing gears are being manufactured here but people donrsquot really know Make in India is not like a tourism campaign where there is an ad and tourists will start coming to the Taj Mahal In our presentation we had said we need to imagine Make in India like the like the start of Industrial Revolution II it was for everyone to understand the scaleI tell people that this is an invitation If everything was well we wouldnrsquot be calling for Make in India we would just be making right On ground so many things are still the same It is going to take time another 10 yearsQ Do you think criticism is levied against Make in India because Modi leads itA Possibly But it would not have reached this international scale in such a short time otherwiseQ After your firm A merged with Weiden Kennedy Delhi you have quit to start a new venture What is the move about You say you are done with advertisingA We have been planning our departure from Weiden Kennedy for two years and talking to the agency about it A company like Weiden Kennedy or talent like ours canrsquot be doing the same thing all the time We have to keep evolving The new company with Mohit Jayal will among other things take our magazine Motherland ahead and turn it into a new animal I will continue as a consultant with Make in IndiaQ Motherland is known for its countervoice and representation of Indiarsquos subcultures Itrsquos about the fringe On the other hand nothing can get more mainstream than Modidriven Make in India Who is the real Sunil thenA It is important for me to package India smartly and strongly whether it is an ad product Kochi Biennale where he is a trustee or Motherland We have got to mix all of these things because one thing will help the other Even for the Biennale our connections all over the world get used for us to do something worthwhile in Kochi Itrsquos hardcore business on one side and some alternative projects like Kochi Biennale and Motherland on the other for usQ And what if Modi is not around as PM for 10 years What happens to Make in IndiaA Modi is the brand ambassador for Make in India as Prime Minister It is not a BJP campaign Itrsquos a DIPP campaign