Talented casts Cars24’s CEO in a legendary new role as King Vikram in latest campaign
We’ve seen actors play cricketers, cricketers play characters, and actors play CEOs. But when it comes to CEOs starring in ads, we typically see them as themselves: delivering a keynote, sharing their expertise, or speaking about the business.
Cars24’s latest campaign, created by Talented in collaboration with Bang Bang Mediacorp, challenges that convention by casting Cars24 CEO Vikram Chopra as the wise King Vikram. In a playful spin on the iconic Vikram-Betaal folklore, the campaign brings the familiar legendary characters into the world of buying and selling cars.
Chopra, CEO and protagonist, Cars24, said: “Companies often become too grown-up too quickly. They begin to protect their image, their language and their leaders until every piece of work starts looking like it was approved by a committee. I did not want that for us. This was a sharp, strange, deeply Indian idea with a real truth at its heart, and saying yes was easy. We should make more things that make people pause, smile and think: only they could have done that.”
Madhur Budhiraja, Creative, Talented, said: “The thing about simple ideas: you often land on them through an insight, and as you develop them, they slowly reveal even more beautiful layers. This one started with something as simple as why not make Cars24 CEO, Vikram, play the wise King Vikram? Only to realise that Betaal doubled as a perfect representation of consumers – questioning, curious, and looking for answers when a new offering enters the market. And then came another realisation: we’d never really seen a CEO play a character before.”
Ryan Mendonca, Director, Bang Bang Mediacorp, added: “Vikram and Betaal were some of the simpler interests of a 90s child like myself. Each story had a moral point, which I would soon forget, but the characters and aesthetics have stayed with me. Thankfully, this came in handy at a much riper age. We created two worlds. The kitschy jungle, complete with bad costuming and worse lighting, was the highlight for us. In this jungle, real-world physics were optional and crazy was the order of the day. These films were a trip for the whole crew. We’re grateful for the opportunity to put this out into the universe.”
