Your relationship

The Economic Times on Sunday

OCTOBER 2-8, 2011 16 centrespread with time p.31
The Economic Times on Sunday
OCTOBER 2-8, 2011 17 centrespread
01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32

FILMING GANDHI
The movie that made
money, and still does
1
Gandhi (1982)
Mahatma in the Mix
The great man was born this day, 142 years ago. As is inevitable with great men, Mahatma inspired and continues
MARKETING THE MAHATMA
The power of Brand Gandhi and why it’s
not always a good thing to capitalise on it
In 2001, Tushar Gandhi tried to tie up with celebrity management company CMG Worldwide to
manage Gandhi. Needless to say the deal ruffled many feathers and was called off. Marketing
the Mahatma is always a tricky business. But if politicians can shamelessly borrow his name,
why can’t businesses? Here’s a short history of Brand Mahatma.
DIRECTED BY: Richard Attenborough to inspire ideas — in culture, in business, even in fashion. Also inevitable, some of the ideas generate controversies. Apple Think Different Campaign: 1997
Interestingly the only authoritative film on Gandhi
is by a Brit director. The irony if it’s not obvious to ET on Sunday looks at how Brand Gandhi has played out over the years Realising there’s safety in numbers, Apple used
images of many great leaders, including
you, you must be fatigued by the numerous Gandhi, with its tagline ‘Think Different’ to promote
watchings of the film on good ol’ Doordarshan. lateral thinking. The one-minute commercial
featured black-and-white footage of 17 iconic
EARNED: `258 crore* 20th century personalities.

But Mahatma is mostly not A QUICK BIO M O H A N D A S

A K A : B A P U ,
K A R A M C H A N D
M A H A T M A , F A T H E R O F
G A N D H I
T H E N A T I O N
Telecom Italia Gandhi Commercial: 2004
Telecom Italia released a commercial using Gandhi’s feature and excerpts of his speech at the

profitable, moviewise Inter-Asian Relations Conference, New Delhi, 1947. Though the commercial won Europe’s pre-
mier creative award, the Epica Award for the year, it invited ire for using Gandhi’s image.
BORN QUALIFICATION SUNSIGN PLACES HE WORKED PREFERRED MODE OF DIET
The Making of the Mahatma Oct 2, 1869 Barrister at Law, London Libra India, South Africa, England TRANSPORTATION Goat milk, jaggery, Handi Gandhi: 2005
2 On foot, mostly. Travelled rice, wheat, fruits
(1996) DIRECTED BY: Shyam Benegal A New South Wales company Handi-Gandhi sold beef curry with Bapu’s face on it. Tushar Gand-
third class by train and vegetables
hi came to the rescue. He approached Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to ask the Australian
Benegal’s traces his early life in South Africa. The government intervene and stop the curry from cooking.
film, funded by National Films Division Corporation
WORK EX Virgin Group Credit Card: 2007
and South African Broadcasting Corporation, was
Was an ambulance The use of Mahatma Gandhi’s image in a Virgin Group credit card advertisement triggered
not intended as a commercial project. driver during protests in South Africa. The ad shows Gandhi, his lips moving, speaking for the credit card.
the Boer war in
3 Hey Ram (2000) South Africa Mont Blanc Mahatma Pens: 2009
DIRECTED BY: Kamal Haasan Founded the African Mont Blanc wants better sales in India. Strategy: use Bapu as
National Congress an icon and design a super luxury pen in his name. Unfortu-

GANDHI & BOOKS

Stranger films have made it as India’s Oscar
entries. This Gandhi-yet-not-quite-a-Gandhi film and fought for the nately, the pen, tagged at `11 lakh a piece, never took off as
rights of Indian self-confessed guardians of the Mahatma name cried foul at
is about a wannabe Gandhi slayer who later workers in South this travesty of his beliefs.
turns Gandhian in life. The man inspired many books but here are Africa in 1912
the three that ruffled feathers, big time Eternal Gandhi: 2011
EARNED: `1.3 crore Launched Non-
Today the Aditya Birla Group-pro-
Cooperation
moted Eternal Gandhi brand will
Nine Hours To Rama Movement in 1920
open its first shop at the Mumbai
4 Gandhi, My Father (2007) STANLEY WOLPERT Launched the Salt International airport. The outlet will
DIRECTED BY: Feroze Abbas Khan Don’t try to find a copy in your local bookstore,
Satyagraha in 1930 stock around 50 custom-designed
it’s banned in India. A work of historical items, including puzzle cubes, crystal
A film that’s not so much on Gandhi, the leader but Started Quit India
fiction, the book traces the life of Nathuram cubes, watches, statues of the three
Movement in 1942
Gandhi, the dad. Tracks the strained relationship Godse, nine hours before he shot Gandhi. monkeys, khadi shirts and more.
between Gandhi and his eldest son Harilal.
DIED
Miscellaneous Products
Jan 30, 1948
EARNED: `2.5 crore Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi Gandhi has always inspired many products. From tee-shirts to
JOSEPH LELYVELD bags to even shoes. While Delhi-based stationery design house
DesignWallas has got his smiling mug on their Iconoclastic
Special Mention The book was banned in Gandhi’s native state
Gujarat. It stirred controversy and anger over refer- notebooks, Tantra (the T-shirt people) has a Gandhi tee that uses his
ences to the Gandhi’s alleged racism, bisexuality, iconic glasses with a line ‘Gandhi: They don’t make ’em like him any-
5 Lage Raho Munna Bhai (2006) sexual perversion and even political ineptitude. more’ (pic right). Even Italian porcelain maker Lladro launched a
DIRECTED BY: Raju Hirani Gandhi statue in 2008 for `11, 000.

The movie reinvented Gandhism as ‘Gandhigiri’. Interestingly, a US-based site zazzle.com offers many Gandhi-inspired products — from T-shirts,
And made Hirani the current favourite of the Gandhi: Naked Ambition
keychains, coasters to even shoes using Gandhi imagery and famous quotes.
JAD ADAMS
masses who champions common causes through
humour and good ol’ masala cinema. The book takes the word ‘naked’ literally. It’s better
known for throwing light on Gandhi’s unusual sex life

EARNED: `95 crore

— his idea of celibacy, his sermons on the topic and

*Figures are not inflation adjusted.

Sources: boxofficeindia.com, imdb.com, boxofficemojo.com
his practice of sleeping naked next to naked women
to test his restraint.
GANDHI & FASHION The fabric he championed and the topi are
weighed down by his legacy
The Gandhi Topi is Back Is Khadi Reinventing Itself?

PLAYING GANDHI
Gandhi’s life was dramatic and hence easy fodder for the stage plays
Mee Nathuram Godse Boltoy
Directed by veteran Marathi actor Vinay
Apte, it premises that Godse was misunder-
stood as the villain in the Indian history. He
tells his own story on how he came to kill
Gandhi. Needless to say, the play has been
banned after being critically acclaimed.
Mahatma vs Gandhi
Director Feroze Abbas Khan examines the
troubled relationship of Gandhi with his
eldest son Harilal. The play is based on the
Gujarati novel Prakashno Padcchayo and
is about the anguish of Mahatma, as a
father, and not of the nation.
Though Gandhi rarely wore the creation that bears his Do you know the latest rage in international fashion?
name, the Gandhi topi was a well thought out political Khadi denim! With global brands swearing allegiance to
move on the leader’s part. His idea was to create a sym- the cult of ‘conscientious consumption’, it’s the new
bol — something that will replace the myriad Indian black. But reinventing khadi is not a simple task. Possi-
headgears. After much deliberation he modelled the bly because it carries the weight of our freedom struggle
Opera Satyagraha in every warp and weft. It has been trying hard to
white topi on the Kashmiri cap. While followers from
Composed by Philip Glass, the opera is based on
Nehru to Shastri doffed their hats to the topi and wore revamp through khadi blends, and designers like Rohit
the life of Gandhi, and is the second part of Glass’s
it diligently, the cap lost it’s appeal somewhere in the Bal, Ritu Kumar, Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla, have
“Portrait Trilogy” of operas about men who
mid-60s. Thanks to Anna Hazare, it’s back. Incidentally, used it. But it needs to become fashionable. Maybe the
changed the world (includes Einstein & Akhnaten).
the khadi stores in New Delhi sold at least 300-400 denim can beat khadi’s blues.
It was first performed at the Stadsschouwburg in
pieces a day during Hazare’s epic fast for `39 each.
Rotterdam, The Netherlands in September 1980.
Text: Nupur Amarnath and TV Mahalingam Illustration: Alankar

Television: Gandhi was one the lead characters in a short-lived Canadian- All of the Top 8 metro cities in Gandhi statues and busts are located in cities Tata Nano was designed using a Every Indian rupee note Governments, both present and past, love to use Mahatma’s
American animated series on a special school for clones of great men and women. India have a road named after the across the world. A Gandhi statue watches concept called ‘Gandhian engineering’ has an image of Gandhi. name. Welfare schemes like Mahatma Gandhi Bunkar Bima
In the series, Gandhi, like his best friend Abe, is struggling to live up to his clone Mahatma, more often than not over the public squares of cities like Guadala- or frugal engineering which uses the The RBI started printing Yojana, Mahatma Gandhi Gramin Basti Yojana and Mahatma
father Mahatma Gandhi. So he reinvents himself as a wild party animal. referred to as MG Road jara (Mexico), Santiago (Chile), Vancouver minimalistic approach to solve the ‘Mahatma Gandhi Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act have
(Canada) and Antwerp (Belgium) complex engineering problems series’ in 1996 been named after him