Advertising legend Piyush Pandey died on Friday after suffering from pneumonia for several weeks. The 70-year-old’s sudden death left the entire industry mourning. Piyush’s niece, actor Ishitta Arun, penned a heartwarming tribute for him on social media, recalling her special memories with him.
Ishitta Arun shared a heartwarming tribute for Piyush Pandey
On Friday, Ishitta took to Instagram to share her fond memories with her late mama (maternal uncle), Piyush. She recalled how he came to Mumbai because her mother decided his talent was being wasted in Calcutta. She revealed that he stayed with her parents for his first five years here. She added,
“We lived in a small two-bedroom flat in Santacruz (East), and as an only child, I suddenly had my first and only roommate. I was ecstatic. I’d wait all day for him to return from OBM, singing at the top of my lungs, like a malfunctioning radio with confidence but no tuning. One day, he lost his patience and said, ‘Main tumhe ulta pankhe se latka doonga.’ (I’ll hang you upside down from the fan.) For me, it was Tuesday. For him, a breakdown.”
She revealed that her mama was her first ever roommate and said, “Being the drama queen I was, I told my teacher, who promptly called my mother and asked, ‘Is there a man in your house threatening to hang your daughter upside down?’ Yes, there was. His name was Piyush Pandey – my first roommate, my first critic, and my forever favourite human. I grew up orbiting his brilliance – OBM parties in our modest home, Sunday matches played like World Cups, and starring in my first ad commercial at age three under him. I was his ‘blue-eyed baby.’ I saw him rise, I saw his genius, and that spark never dimmed – even when the world called him a legend.”
She went on to heap praise on him and said, “He was protective, funny, sharp, and brutally honest. When I was getting married, my mother told him I was marrying Dhruv from the Dhruv-and-Ashu duo of Smoke Music. He opened the door, looked me dead in the eye, and said, ‘Which one, the fat one or the thin one?’ That was Mama, irreverent, affectionate, and never boring. In the last five years, whenever he called to say he liked something I’d done, that was all the validation I needed. Because compliments from Mama were rarer than a traffic-free day in Mumbai.”
Ishitta Arun recalled how Piyush would often make relentless fun of her Buddhist practice, referring to it as ‘that morchang business’ and imitating it with a perfect ‘twang-twang-twang.’ She said he would laugh while she rolled her eyes, and somehow, that became their shared form of prayer, loud, offbeat, and completely their own.
She concluded, “So Mama, like you always said – ‘haan bhai front foot pe khelo’ (Yes, always play on the front foot) – I promise I’ll keep singing – maybe not so loudly this time, but definitely on the front foot. Because you taught us — brilliance isn’t in winning the match, it’s in showing up, fearless, on the front foot.”
Ishitta captioned the post, “For the man who taught me that life, like cricket, is best played — fearless and always on the front foot. Haan Bhai! Mama love you! Your roomie for life.”
About Piyush Pandey
Piyush Pandey, often described as the face of modern Indian advertising, began his career in the 1980s and rose to become the Chief Creative Officer Worldwide of Ogilvy & Mather. Piyush transformed the way ads spoke to the country’s diverse audience. His campaigns, from Fevicol’s Jod Ke Rakhe Hamesha (Always keeps things joined together) to Cadbury’s Kuch Khaas Hai (There’s something special) and Asian Paints’ Har Ghar Kuch Kehta Hai (Every home tells a story), became cultural landmarks.
His funeral was held in Mumbai on Saturday. Bollywood celebs like Abhishek Bachchan, Amitabh Bachchan, Manoj Pahwa, and Ashoke Pandit, among others, paid their last respects at his funeral. Singer-actor Ila Arun, sister of the late Piyush Pandey, met the celebrities with folded hands.
