Fluff and stuff
Welcome to a blog about advertising from South India. A lived-in perspective rather than one that skims the surface. Chennai has its own distinctive culture and it makes no apologies for being insular and not very welcoming to outsiders. Eating out was taboo until about 15 years ago and the restaurant scene is still insipid enough to incite complaint from the people who have relocated to the city to cash in on the manufacturing jobs that mushroomed. Ford, Nokia, Hyundai and BMW have set up their plants here. On the information technology front, Chennai competes with Bangalore and Hyderabad. It has better infrastructure than Bangalore but the climate is balmy throughout the year. 'Winter' is when the temperature drops to livable levels from October - December. Chennai is the fount of South Indian Classical music and dance and the annual music festival brings 'rasikas' (fans) from across the world back to two weeks of indulgence in ragas and rants. Reputations are made and torn asunder every year but every musician worth his or her salt looks to perform in Chennai during this crucial time. It's what gets them programmes from all across the country and the world for the rest of the year. The top bracket always trace their lineage back to Chennai.
The biggest contribution from advertising has been AR Rahman. He began his career as a musician composing jingles and background scores for ads but since 1991 has moved into the movies and graduated to composing music for Andrew Lloyd Webber's play - 'Bombay Dreams' and the recently launched musical 'Lord of The Jungle'