I was 6 months old in advertising when I got ‘Sanyam’ (Self-control) as a brief to promote condoms to the lower-strata migrant labour. The brief didn’t feel right. And I had no real idea about this market. So, I, along with my creative director Ajit Kuriakose (the copywriter who wrote God’s own Country), servicing partner and buddy (Gaurav Sikka) decided to visit GB Road (Delhi’s infamous red-light area) to research for condom usage behaviour, while my art partner Shweta Ahuja sensibly chose to wait for us in the office.

The sex workers didn’t answer a single question out of the questionnaire we had prepared so meticulously, and had a ball at the expense of our naivety. After much ragging and confusion, we somehow escaped with little self-esteem, but a lot of insight about the scene. I asked myself: How can you convince a poor, over-worked, horny and drunk migrant to exercise self-control when he’s about to go for what’s possibly the only entertainment he can afford? A: Tell him if he loves his joystick, he should use a condom. BMGF and PSI loved the idea and gave Percept/h where i used to work, the business. Refusing all the usual big suspects in the game. NCD from Mumbai, Elvis Sequera called and told me I’m doing something right.