The nicely-done campaign film was launched to mark ABP’s centenary.
Kolkata-based ABP, one of India’s largest and oldest media houses which owns media outlets including its flagship The Telegraph, has launched a charming new campaign film featuring a young boy’s epic search for “Korea City”. Or so he thinks that’s what he is looking for.

Shot in the remote parts of Bengal and Jharkhand, the 3-minute film shows a curious boy asking all manner of people from all walks of life, across seemingly great distances, where he can find the “Korea City” he saw in the newspaper.

The campaign film was launched to mark ABP’s centenary and was conceived by creative director Agnello Dias and directed by Ashim Ahluwalia of Future East.

We will not spoil the comedic – and quite lovely – twist at the end, so have a look for yourself.

“On our centenary year, we wanted to articulate our brand value through a compelling idea that was as powerful as it was authentic,” said Dhruba Mukherjee, CEO, ABP Group.

“The thought ‘Curiosity Questions Answers’ struck a chord with our internal and external stakeholders. We are looking forward to celebrating this important milestone by running this campaign all through the year.”

“The notion of curiosity and questioning is omnipresent in everything that APB Group has done in the last 100 years. To articulate this we didn’t want a dumbed-down simplistic catchy slogan,” said Agnello Dias, Creative Director.

That’s a good question.

“We felt that if we reverse the conventional cliché about curiosity providing answers to questions, it could be a fresher challenging take on the inquisitive gene that makes all of us human. It’s only apt that the line itself is a curious kind of line for a thought like this.”

Ashim Ahluwalia, Director, Future East added: “I was immediately attracted to the bold creative idea of the campaign. The film was written like a story, not an ad film. The entire journey summed up the brand without hard selling anything. In terms of creative treatment we didn’t want stage things perfectly, I wanted to find real events and spaces, real people who had never seen cameras and just improvise around them.”

The campaign will additionally be supported by print and outdoor components.

Credits
Client: ABP Group
Campaign Title: ABP Centenary Campaign
Production Company: Future East
Creative Director: Agnello Dias
Director: Ashim Ahluwalia
Art Directors: Hetal Ajmera – Sharpener Design
Copywriters: Agnello Dias, Lata Vasudevan Bagchi

Production House: Future East Film
Director: Ashim Ahluwalia
Producer: Suparna Chatterjee
Writer: Agnello Dias
Director of Photography: Satya Rai Nagpaul
Music Composer: Arijit Datta
Second Unit and Associate Director: Abhinav Babar
Chief Assistant Director: O’Keefe Attari
DAs: Pranay Dawar and Pallav Saha
2nd ADs: Amogh Shandilya and Falguni Dhumde
Cast: Krishiv Jindal and Aarsha Mohan

Line Producer: Sunny Salvi
Production Manager: Sameer Kamble
Kolkata Line Producer: Saubhik Das
Kolkata Production Manager: Subharaj Singh
Kolkata Second AD: Shakhu Karmakar
1st AC: Yudhisthira Behera
Gaffer: Avijit Jana
Production Designer: Bablu Singha
Make Up & Hair: MD Younus and Bina Nath
Costumes: Gobinda Mondal
Casting Directors: Crackerjack Casting and the AD team
Drone: Vicky
Second Unit DOP: Kenneth Cyrus

Post Producer: Akash Kakade
Offline Editor: Abhinav Phoenix
Offline Studio: Prime Focus
Online Editor: Jitendra Kalwani
Online Studio: After Studio
Sound Engineer: Rishabh Agarwal
Voices: Niharika Singh and Agnello Dias
Violinist: Jitendra Thakur
Pianist: Akshay Dabhadkar
Sound Studio: Rishabh’s Studio & Tonic Factory
Post Production Assistant: Dhanik Dhende