Creative people tend to be wary of clients, but not Piyush, he won them over

Illustration/Uday Mohite

And so our beloved Piyush Pandey has passed away. If a Ranji trophy career had materialised for him, would cricket have gained and “the communication business” have lost. I’d have to say, modern Indian advertising can be divided into the pre-Piyush and post-Piyush periods. Every business has a poster boy, and Piyush was ours.

I’ve always wondered why we had only one titan in our business. Was it the times we live in, did he shape Indian advertising so acutely that we only have place for one?

Piyush Pandey didn’t invent Indian advertising — that would be a great disservice, to the giants who walked the ad universe before him — My dad, my two uncles, Kersey Katrak and Gerson daCunha, Alyque Padamsee, Mohammed Khan, Chris Rozario, Frank Simoes etc.

But he did give Indian advertising a grammar that was ours, he broke it down, allowed the heartland of

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