3rd Year Special Annual Double Issue Vol 4 Issue 1 & 2 Jan - Apr 2 3rd Year Special Annual Double Issue Vol 4 Issue | Page 61

is from Assam’s famed tea gardens. And
the gentleman from Assam who supplies
my annual quota of tea is a humble,
publicity shy bloke - Pradip Chakraborty,
who is based in India’s Tea Town -
Dibrugarh. Pradip has silently been
working as a crusader of Assam’s Tea
Tourism for close to three decades now
and he has been promoting Assam Tea
in metropolitan India - Delhi, Kolkata,
Bangalore and Vizag through “Word-
of-Mouth” publicity via the burgeoning
Bengali community domiciled in these
cities. Today, the Bengali Bhadralok’s
penchant for tea is well known and this
small town guy from one of the remotest
corners of India’s North East has been
promoting the finest variety of Assam
Tea with literally no support from the
Government.
As if to prove a point to the mandarins
of Assam’s Tea Industry, he has
successfully shipped a consignment of
fine quality Assam Tea to faraway Papua
New Guinea, a country located to the
north of Australia, renowned for its
pristine beaches, magnificent coral reefs
and active volcano spots. Thanks to
Pradip’s awe-inspiring enterprise, today
Assam Tea has found its way into the
living rooms of the upper-crust
residences in Port Moresby.
These days, innovation is the buzzword
and the moment I suggested Pradip to
do an Ad Film on Assam Tea in the icy
backdrop of Norway, he was quick to
identify the tremendous impact that the
advertisement would generate in the
burgeoning Indian marketplace. So off
we went - Zip, Zap, Zoom ! Norway.
We boarded the Air India flight from Delhi
and landed in Oslo, the capital of Norway.
Needless to say, we were fatigued after
the 14 hour flight. But, having done our
pre-departure homework meticulously,
the transition to Scandinavia was
smooth. With hotel bookings in place,
cruise ship holidays reserved, bespoke
sightseeing itineraries and multiple
vantage locations for Ad Films selected
well in advance, meant that we were
100% assured of a Rollercoaster Norway
sojourn.
Vol 4 | Issue 1 |Jan - Feb 2019
Hats off to the mandarins of Norway’s
Tourism Department - Visit Norway!
They have a dedicated Media & Press
Centre and the executives are not just
knowledgeable but also have deep
insight into Norwegian culture and
lifestyle. Since we had come with the
primary business of shooting an Ad
Film on Assam Tea, the Media Centre
was well prepared with their plan
of action, offering us with a multiplicity
of suggestions to choose the most
appropriate locale for shooting the
documentary.
After more than 5 hours of Audio Visual
displays with supporting background
information on each region, we were
still nowhere near to finding the right
setting for our Ad Film. Finally, thanks to
the resourcefulness of the Media Centre
professionals, we winded up to have an
impromptu lunch that offered us all with
an escape route to refresh ourselves
and think creatively in our Post-lunch
session. Nowhere else have I seen such
professionalism in the media circles
as with the ones that I met at Visit
Norway.
Post-lunch, a renowned Norwegian
Ad Film expert was invited to join in
the deliberations and he sought all
kinds of information pertaining to
Assam Tea - Of how the British East
India Company first planted the tea
saplings,how tea is manufactured,
Assam’s
culture, lifestyle and the
geography part. Once we finished
our presentation, he insisted that
we choose the Northern Lights as that
would offer the most appropriate setting
for the Ad Film on Assam Tea.
And the affable Norwegian went that
extra mile to choose the exact spot for
our Film - Svalbard.
Why Svalbard ?
Svalbard, because of its icy Fjords, majestic
glaciers and its proximity to the North
Pole.
Svalbard is not just wilderness. Its
Arctic Wilderness personified and the
terrain is rugged to say the least. Since
61