The Story so far...
Torun was hired by HTA Calcutta, while still in his second year of BCom circa '91 by the Creative Director, on the basis of his college notebook margin scribbles and a couple of really bad AIESEC magazine covers. He spent the next couple of years getting a crash course in commercial art. Little did he know, he was getting himself into advertising boot camp. The oldies took him under their wing and he survived, only to leave 4 years later with a firm grounding in the technicalities of art direction, a good understanding of advertising principles and the importance of consumer insight, couple of national advertising club awards and a burning desire to do more contemporary advertising.
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He then joined TrikayaGrey Calcutta at a time when they were a leading creative hotshop. He had a really good time doing some funky creatives with Swapan Seth under the watchfull eye of Anurag Hira, who greatly influenced his understanding of typography and its use in commercial art, and was a sort of mentor to him. Torun left Grey the following year when they invited him to help set up Equus Calcutta. There was no way he was going to give up the opportunity to put together and help run a dream team. His stint in Equus gave him the experience of putting together and running a creative department as a viable business unit while producing some really excellent creatives. Although he was enjoying himself, he needed more freedom and a larger canvas to experiment on.
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In '97 Torun moved to McCann-Erickson Delhi as a Group-Head, because he found the same kind of high-spirited, edgy, 'have-to-prove-a-point' kind of atmosphere (much more officialese though) that he had enjoyed so much in Equus. He spent 3 1/2 years there developing and implementing creatives for various brand launches and theme creatives across product categories such as Bacardi, Sprite, Fanta, Motorola, among others. McCann being a larger organization, it enhanced his managerial skills while giving him a better perspective of Indian advertising in the global context.
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Torun was hired by JWT Delhi in 2000 as creative director to improve the creative product on Reebok, ESPN, Horlicks and Boost. After spending a year on these brands he moved on to handle brand Pepsi. " It's been an enriching & an amazing learning experience for 7 years, especially the exposure to the craft of film making." he says. He then moved on to handle a new set of accounts, Pepsi Foods, primarily brand Lays, Nestles KIT-KAT, Mountain Dew, Mirinda Sorbet, GE money and had a great experience launching RadioMeow.
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in 2011 Torun joined Hakkuhodo Delhi as Executive Creative Director and created some market disrupting advertising for brands such as TOSHIBA, Hindware, Sofy and Yakult.
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Around this time he was bitten by the entrepreneurial bug and he quit mainstream advertising and moved to a strategic consultant role helping clients troubleshoot, identify and solve marketing communication problems working with their existing communication partners.
"Fun, exciting, rewarding, hugely pressured times... immensely satisfying! " is how he described his time in mainline advertising.
"Over 20 years of hardcore advertising has exposed me to nearly every product category across every consumer demographic and market. I have been lucky to have had the opportunity to do award winning, market disrupting work on some of the worlds and India's biggest consumer brands and created some memorable campaigns. I had great clients who had vision. I am proud to have contributed to the brands growth. my career has allowed me to collaborate with some of the finest minds and most talented individuals in the industry and become good friends... and yes, even Bollywood stars and cricketers who I've shot with. Ive done and excelled at what advertising has to offer, and i want to try new, different things now.
Advertising is my love. I'm good at it! I enjoy doing it! i will always be connected... my advertising knowledge will always be accessible to those who need it. I will just be doing more interesting things also. Like paragliding and art." he is quoted saying in an interview to a leading marketing & advertising website at the time.
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On his path of self actualization and discovery, when he is not paragliding or making art and installations, he is currently involved in a effort to provide sustainable rural employment through adventure sports in Uttarakhand India. and is looking for funding and connections in this project.
he is also developing and working on his own internet portal on adventure sports in India... www.AdventureIndia.INFO, as well as a project on feasible off-grid self sufficient designer homes in remote areas.
The rest of his time is spent working on cost effective strategic communication and DESIGN solution projects in corporate identity, logo design, website design, product design, product packaging design, brainstorming business possibilities, ideating for solutions, interior design, customized art, fashion & portrait photography for established clients as well as startups.
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Torun is always excited at opportunities to work on any interesting projects across the spectrum that would benefit from his advertising experience as well as his creative and innovative perspective. Projects that give him the scope for experimenting and creating idea based business solutions including advertising communication. His diverse bandwidth in advertising experience, aesthetic sensibilities, qurky sense of humor and a keen sense of 'indian jugard' philosophy combined with his innovative thinking have helped him find path-breaking solutions in time pressured circumstances.
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