We were delighted to hear that Sonal Dabral’s first-ever play as a playwright, called ‘Dhund’, recently opened in Singapore as part of a festival of Hindi short plays called Dastak.
 
Dhund is “based on a story I wrote about old age, loneliness, love and caring,” says Dabral, an old friend of ADFEST’s, who was Jury President of the Direct Lotus category at ADFEST 2015.
 
These days, Dabral is Group Chief Creative Officer and Vice Chairman, Ogilvy India. He joined Ogilvy from DDB Mudra Group in July this year.
 
To celebrate the success of his sell-out play in Singapore, we thought we’d revisit one of our favorite interviews with Dabral, conducted by Emir Shafri (Executive Creative Director, Young & Rubicam), which was recorded at ADFEST in 2015.
 
He shares wise tips, such as: “When you stop seeing a client as a client but a member of your team, when you truly become a team, then selling itself becomes easier because you start to read each other’s minds and connect on a human level rather than a transactional level. Then you can do something together that is best for the brand.”
 
When asked how time living in Singapore and Malaysia influenced Dabral as a creative leader, he said: “One thing I never tire of telling juniors and colleagues is that for any creative person, forget whether it’s advertising or fine arts or filmmaking, it’s absolutely essential to be curious. Curiosity is one trait that you just cannot do without. Our training for creative thinking doesn’t happen sitting in an office or happen from books – it happens by observing human behaviour.”
 
Watch their interview here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2STU2NLaGE