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Sudha Menon

Pune , Dec. 29

THE New Year is going to see some fresh action in the highly competitive public relations space, with Rediffusion PR's head honcho and one of its founding members, Mr Supriyo Gupta, quitting the company to set up shop on his own.

Mr Rajeev Sangwan, Regional Director of Vaishnavi Corporate Communications, is now being brought in as head of PR, according to Mr Arun Nanda, Chairman and Managing Director, Rediffusion DY&R.

Come January 1, and Mr Gupta will officially be in business as CEO of the latest PR outfit in town, Torque Communications Pvt Ltd. Torque is being promoted by a group of individual investors, "friends and business contacts from my long career," who have pumped in an initial investment of approximately Rs 2.5 crore, Mr Gupta said. The new outfit will "leverage my experience working with large brands and will also do lots of trouble-shooting in addition to consumer activities," Mr Gupta told Business Line on Monday.

Torque Communication has already set up offices in Delhi, Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Mumbai, and plans are being firmed up to set up shop in Chennai and Kolkata by the end of the month. "We have already signed up more than half-a-dozen accounts," Mr Gupta said, adding that he would announce the names next week.

Mr Gupta joined Rediff in1995; during his seven-year stint with the organisation, he has handled the accounts of telecom major Bharti Telecom and Maruti Udyog.

Rediff currently has eight branch offices and over 40 PR professionals on board. While industry sources insist Mr Gupta's outfit is walking away with a large chunk of the team at Rediff, he himself denies the rumours. "I am looking at recruiting the best that there is in the industry and a couple of these happen to be from my former employer." A 14-member team is already in place at Torque and only a couple of them are from Rediff, he said. Rediffusion DY&R's Mr Nanda, meanwhile, said, "The PR industry has very high employee turnover between agencies and Mr Gupta's resignation is also part of this phenomenon." He added that he did not expect the move to affect any of the company's existing clients.

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