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| "A
car is like a woman. Curves in the right places make quite an
impact." |
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The
bug has bitten ad-maker Prahlad Kakkar, again. And to think it
all started with the sensual Lisa Ray. By Girish Karkera.
He learnt to drive in an old Vauxhall converted into a Dune Buggy-
his first car which he still owns. He is easily turned on by good-looking
cars. And dreams of owning a big SUV some day. Still, Prahlad Kakkar,
the brain behind many a successful ad campaign like those for Pepsi and
Britannia among the recent ones, says that he’s not much of an auto
buff. Hard to believe. We think he’s probably trying to mislead us
so that we pack up soon and he can reach office in time to meet his clients.
Tough luck mate!
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| Prahlad
Kakkar with his DC-designed Daewoo Matiz |
|
The long locks of hair trying desperately to hide under that trademark
hat, the thick beard and that mischievous glint in his eyes, make sure
that this ace ad guy doesn’t go unnoticed. And he’s made himself
all the more obvious, now that he’s got a DC-designed Daewoo Matiz
that he got converted into an open-top ‘buggy’.
“It’s not exactly how I had planned it to be,” said Prahlad
as he removed the wraps off the bug. “I wanted it to be more like
an open-top convertible with a canvas roof. I took the car to Dilip Chhabria
Design, and found that I had let my imagination run a bit too wild.”
Well, here’s
what Prahlad had in mind. He wanted to cut open the entire top portion of
the car, except the windscreen, of course, along the waistline. But that,
as he later found out, would dangerously weaken the Matiz’s monocoque
chassis. So, instead it was decided to have two removable roof planks with
the shell left almost untouched. For safety sake, it was strengthened, nevertheless,
with a couple of metal bars. Four doors were reduced to two, helping keep
the car’s weight intact.
Cut the story, what about Lisa Ray? Oh, right. Here goes. Do you
remember the new Matiz ad starring Lisa and model Sanjay Suri, where both
reach the showroom for a test drive and fall in love with the car as well
as with each other? One of the scenes required a top shot of Miss Ray sprawling
on the front passenger seat. There’s no doubt that the Matiz has quite
a roomy interior with loads of headroom, but to get the laid-back Lisa in
full splendor needed the camera to be placed much higher. So, Prahlad simply
cut out a panel of the car’s roof, and presto! The results are there
to see.
Daewoo was quite impressed with Prahlad’s ad. Can’t say the same
about his genius of an idea of giving the Matiz a sun-roof.
So with the company not quite ready to take it back, Prahlad decided to
revive his bug affair.
“A car is addressed as female. And like women, curves in the right
places do make an impact,” notes Prahlad with a cheeky smile. “The
Matiz is a good-looking car. And now she looks even better.
“I especially like the way the spare tyre has been placed. Gives her
a good ‘backside’. Don’t you think so?”Absolutely. But
what about practicality? “Maybe an open-top car is not a very practical
option. But then it’s not supposed to be,” insists Prahlad. After
doing 52 road tests to judge a vehicle’s value for money, that’s
a bit difficult to take.
By the way, Prahlad has owned a most varied list of wheels - right from
a Maruti Omni (which he admits very sheepishly) to a Honda 650 (“I
love bikes”). He currently also owns a Ford Escort diesel which he
promptly jumped into after our photo-shoot for an urgent meeting with an
outstation client. But not before requesting us to drive his ‘bug’
home, which we were more than happy to.
And as we took the longest route to Prahlad’s house, which was a short
drive away, a sense of thrill filled us as the sporty exhaust (yep, that
was done too) and the stunning looks turned a lot of heads, including a
couple of cute ones. And it dawned on us why we could damn practicality,
for once.
Yes, the bells have started ringing in our heads - ting-ting-ti-ting.
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January 2001