India, Oct. 25 -- On August 15, 1988, soon after the Prime Minister's customary speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort in New Delhi, Doordarshan, then the sole TV channel in India, ran an advertisement promoting national integration. It was more music video than ad film, with music composed by Bhimsen Joshi and arranged by Louis Banks. The video was produced by Suresh Mullick, the creative head of Ogilvy and Mather (also the man who, made Mozart's 25th Symphony a recognisable tune in India by using it as the background music for a Titan watches ad), and the lyrics of the song, Mile Sur Mere Tumara (Our tunes merge), were written by an account manager in the agency's Bombay office.

The same year, the man moved to the agency's creative d...