C. Srikanth
Shobha Tharoor won the National Award for her voiceover for the documentary ‘Rhapsody of Rains-Monsoons of Kerala’ directed by Siraj Shah, produced by Invis Multimedia for Kerala Tourism.
Shobha Tharoor Photo: www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=605461515
This time when the National Film Awards were announced, a two-year-old girl in a polka-dotted ponytail spread butter across Amul’s billboards. Shobha Tharoor, winner of the National Film Award for Best Voice Over Narration, is the girl who has graced Amul ads for decades.
While Amulgirl still licks butter as a toddler, Shobha Tharoor Srinivasan, the model for that ad, is in America lickin’ the sweetness of the National Award. Shashi Tharoor MP’s elder sister Shobha is a writer and social activist.
Shobha Tharoor won the National Award for her voiceover for the documentary ‘Rhapsody of Rains-Monsoons of Kerala’ directed by Siraj Shah, produced by Invis Multimedia for Kerala Tourism. This 20-minute film is a combination of all aspects of rain in Kerala, myths, festivals and beliefs related to rain.
The film was completed in five years in the forest, land and sea.
The award was given to Sobha for describing this rainy journey in a sweet voice mixing Malayalam and English. Shobha, a lawyer in America, also volunteers among the physically challenged.
The story of ‘Amulgela’
Shobha accidentally ends up in an advertisement for Anand Milk Union Limited, an ‘Amul’ co-operative dairy founded in Gujarat in 1948 by a Gujarati businessman, Tribhuvandas Patel.
In 1966, Sylvester Cunha’s advertising agency got an opportunity to produce an advertisement for Amul Butter during the Varghese Kurian era. It was also decided that the ad should be child related to reach every home in India. Pictures of children from different parts of the country were invited for advertisement. More than 700 pictures have been received but none have the charm of the Amul girl in mind. Finally Cunha remembered that his friend Chandran Tharoor had two beautiful daughters and a son in Kerala.
His friend called Chandran and asked him to send his elder daughter Shobha’s picture for Amul’s advertisement. As soon as the post was opened and the picture was taken out, a one-and-a-half-year-old girl like ‘Vennakudam’ was decided as the model. The boy’s mascot (a cartoon figure) has remained the face of Amul even today.
The ad won many accolades including the ‘Marketer of the Year’ award from the International Advertising Association of India (IAAI).
The Tharoor family continued this ‘precious’ relationship again. Chandran Tharoor’s younger daughter Smitha also modeled when the company released more advertisements. Smitha was the first colorful Amul baby. Shobha Tharoor was also ‘Miss Kolkata’ in 1977.
Content Highlights: shobha tharoors award for voice over, 68th national film awards
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