The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : He didn't kill `the Q' but did lend a helping hand

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

He didn't kill `the Q' but did lend a helping hand

Rasmi Binoy

CHENNAI: "The Q is dead." Intriguing hoardings that carried these words appeared all along highways two months ago.

A "Q" was shown engraved on a gravestone in some places while "Q" could be seen hanged in others. "Q" was also seen shot dead with bullet marks all over and, lastly became a garlanded photograph.

Once they were let into the secret, the film buffs of Chennai celebrated their newfound freedom: logging on to www.thecinema.in, the online ticket booking facility launched by Sathyam Cinemas. Online booking and the `death' of the "Q" gave birth to a "new wave" of ticket booking.

"A lot of people became curious," said Alexander Zachariah, director of Rubecon Communications Private Limited, the brain behind the campaign.

"What struck me when Sathyam said they were launching an online facility for tickets was that it was the end of the queue. So, instead of showing regular imagery like a hand clicking a mouse, I went for something dramatic."

Arvind Sampath and Aiswarya. K teamed up with him to give shape to the advertisement, which was shot on a mini-set. "We took great care to ensure that `the "Q" is dead' campaign's dark humour was sensitively handled."

Alexander Zachariah had helped in setting up a Department of Visual Communication at Loyola College, and is also a visiting faculty in colleges. "Teaching merely the technical know-how and showering students with theory will not work. More people from the industry should teach ... It is great to work with talented youngsters...

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