The Hindu Business Line : All in a day's work

A BUSNESSLIKE woman is headed to work through a plush business district. She glances at the time on her watch, a Titan Raga. As if it's her imagination working overtime, an apparition-like image of herself appears beside her trying to sew a button on her sleeve as she speeds to work. Shrugging this aside, she walks on, only to be confronted with another apparition of herself trying to feed her milk. She hurries past these images of herself through glass doors that shut behind her, keeping out these two images of herself, a home-maker as well as a mother. Symbolic that those facets of her life are not accompanying her at work and she's herself, neither a doting mother nor wife, attending to hubby and kids.

Titan's latest ad for its 9-to-5 Raga range created by O&M, Bangalore, is meant for today's women at work and reflects their personality. Says Prateek Srivastav, Executive Director, O&M: "If you walk into any office and look around, you will find that a sizeable proportion of people working there are women. And not just in secretarial jobs. Today, women are occupying more and more important positions in the corporate hierarchy, rubbing shoulders with their male colleagues, and in many cases, surpassing them."

But, as Srivastav adds, this does not mean that they have let go of their other responsibility - that of a home-maker. Today's working woman, he explains, is as much a wife and mother as she always was. However, this does not mean that while she is working in the office, she is also worrying about what to cook in the evening. Or whether her children's uniforms are washed and ironed for the next day? "Today's Indian woman has successfully achieved the balance — between being a home-maker and a professional. When she is at home, she is completely immersed in household affairs, but when she is at work, she is a hard-core professional totally focused on her office responsibilities. The new 9 to 5 range of Titan Raga watches are specially designed for this woman - the professional who has successfully compartmentalised both her roles," adds Srivastav.

The advertising for the watches promotes them as an important accessory for the working woman, portrayed in the ad by former Miss India, Gul Panag, who while at work does not want to be seen as a wife or a mother, but just as a professional.

Australian cinematographer Danny Pope explains a shot to model Gul Panag (on right) during the shoot of the Titan commercial. The motion control rig used is in the background.

Shooting the ad was technically challenging, says film-maker Rajiv Menon, who directed the ad. Shot by Australian cinematographer, Danny Pope, through a motion control camera called Milo, the same shot needed to be taken four times to create the effect. The film, shot over two days, has four layers of movements to create the apparition effect. Each shot, Menon explains, took almost four hours to set up and needed to be shot in the same light to avoid disruptions in the ad. Initially, it was decided to portray a husband and child making demands on the lady, but they plumped for this `inner-self' portrayal, though a more difficult ad to shoot. "We needed to break clutter with an unusual ad and create a powerful brand in the women's segment," adds Menon. Many, he says, have asked whether it was shot abroad. No, it was shot at the ITPL, Whitefield, Bangalore!

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