Having crafted stories ranging from advertising, to web films, to brand marketing for two decades – Raj Dutta joins Red Bangle as National Creative Director. Raj has always had a thing for stories: he calls this the side effect of a life lived with plot twists.
After graduating from MICA Ahmedabad, Raj spent his first decade in the era of 30-second advertising – working at agencies like Ogilvy & Mather Hong Kong, Rediffusion Y&R Gurgaon, and McCann Erickson Bangalore.
In 2010, he plunged into new waters and set up HSBC’s inhouse content and creative team from scratch. 4 years later, he switched lanes to head creative at Phantom Ideas, a boutique brand and digital consultancy. At Phantom, Raj has helped to shape brands like AJIO, Practo, Apollo, Aster, ITC, Oxigen, ESPNCricinfo, Reliance Trends and many others.
Whether it’s a 6-minute webisode, a 6-seconder Youtube pre-roll, or a 60-second Instagram post – Raj loves the whole damn business of telling stories. Yes, mediums may have changed, screens may have shrunk, but the power of video has only exploded. And this makes Raj particularly excited about turbocharging Red Bangle’s vision: a uniquely-modelled, cloud-based video production platform for brands and enterprises in India and overseas.
Outside of work, Raj usually hangs out with his two biological kids, plus a few of the four-legged variety who he periodically rescues and rehabilitates from Bangalore’s streets. In between his sundry adventures, Raj also took some time out to write an indie feature film Kasaai (soon to be released), a couple of plays in the theatre circuit, and write as well as illustrate a children’s book (What’s That Sound).