MEDIA MAKERS
A journey to success is hard to cover. The difficulties try to break the person’s determination but only a winner can forge ahead. Yogesh Lakhani, the Chairman and the Managing Director of Bright Outdoor Media Pvt. Ltd is one winner who has faced all the obstacles and strived hard to reach the zenith of success. A supportive and understanding person, he tries his level best to fulfill each and every expectation of his clients.
Hailing from a lower middle-class Saurashtrian family of Mumbai, the young Gujarati lad Yogesh confronted many setbacks that resulted in him being a very strong person. All the responsibilities of looking after the family fell on his tender shoulders. He had to work day and night to earn their livelihood but this situation did not take away his dream of being an achiever. With persistent hard-work and tenacious nature, he laid the foundation of Bright Outdoor Media in the year 1980 and went on to become one of the leaders in the outdoor advertising field. From a single room office to a well-renowned establishment, Yogesh Lakhani has made an exponential growth that is astonishing as well as appreciable.
After an adventurous journey of more than three and a half decades, his company Bright Advertising stands like an impeccable tower in the industry. The company’s name is considered as the synonym to “Advertising”. With a pan Mumbai presence, this company asserts that no one cover this dream city like they do. It proudly boasts of operating more than 1400 hoardings across the city and offering outdoor media services all over the country. The company also has a list of more than 600 reputed clients from diverse sectors such as entertainment, telecom, retail, finance, tour and travel.
With a strong hold on the out-of-home advertising industry, Yogesh Lakhani is one person who started his journey from the scratch and has emerged as a winner. Having a very calm and considerate personality, he believes in brightening the advertising industry with his innovative and creative ideas. The cheerful and always smiling Chairman and Managing Director of Bright Outdoor asserts that though he has done a small cameo in films like Calendar Girls and Dilwale, he is not at all interested in acting or for production of films right now.
Like filmland celebs, Yogesh Lakhani makes it a point to celebrate his birthday every year without fail on a grand scale. Says Yogesh, “Generally I celebrate my birthday on 25th September with well known celebrities but last year I decided to invite children from 500 orphanages, because I just cannot forget the fact that even I had been through bad times when I was in the 10th standard and did not even have enough money to get books. So I keep on distributing books to the needy”.
Yogesh follows his ethical values irrespective of the situations and believes in giving back his share of success to the society. His contribution towards the underprivileged in the field of education and health is commendable.
Yogesh Lakhani is today the market leader and trend-setter among outdoor hoarding agencies! “I have done the outdoor publicity of all the super- hit films of Bombay. All the celebrities believe that I am their lucky charm as I am the fortunate one who has done the outdoor publicity of the debut film of all well known B-Town celebs like Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Ranbir Kapoor, Hrithik Roshan, Akshay Kumar, Deepika Padukone etc.
Yogesh Lakhani entered the glamourous Bollywood Industry with the outdoor advertisement of Venus Films’ movie Pyar Kiya To Darna Kya in the year 1990. Since then, his company has become the one stop destination for almost every movie that releases on the big screen. For the past two decades, he has also been working with distinguished award functions such as Femina, IIFA, Filmfare etc. He has created a huge name in the industry and is a favorite among the celebs.
Yopgesh Lakhani shares a very good bond with the big banners like Yashraj Films, Dharma productions, UTV, Eros, Vishesh Films etc. “I also sponsor awards. I am self-made; I have my own office since 1980. I also train the fresh slot, many college students want to get trained by me. I am successful because of my parents. I work 15 hours a day. Ask any star who he or she approaches for outdoor publicity and the maximum number will take my name”, he avers.
When asked who his competition is, Yogesh does not bat his eye lids. Instead he answers with his smile, “There are many but all are money-minded and work only on commercial basis which is not the case with me. I try my best to support the small or medium budget films. Sometimes when the film does not score well at the box office I even cut down my rate for them. Everyone nowadays is egoistic”.
What is endearing about Yogesh Lakhani is that he does not forget at all the fact that he had started his career from zero to hero. “Yes. I started my career from zero. I sold even newspapers and match-sticks. Now I am amongst the top three. I started Bright Outdoor Digital media focusing on Twitter, Facebook and other social media. We keep improvising our work. We support regional films as well be it Marathi or Bhojpuri or any other. If any one comes to me to my office with some work, I don’t let anyone go back with empty hands”.
Yogesh who has produced two small budget films Smile Please and Rafoo Chakkar is brutally honest and does not mind confessing that after facing failure he dropped the plan of production. “I did not have experience so I started with small budget films as after that I thought of doing a big budget film”.
Yogesh is more than happy with the way his career has shaped. “I am happy doing publicity. I had also acted in a small role in Rahul Shetty’s Dilwale and Madhur Bhandarkar’s Calendar Girls, though I am not interested at all in acting”.
Talking about his business today, Lakhani says, “ Our business is growing day by day. It is very easy to reach the position of number 1 but to maintain that is very difficult as people start expecting more and more. I have a staff of 100. Mumbai alone has 700 to 800 hoardings of Bright Outdoor hoardings, which was 1000 earlier. Now the market is very big and the big budget films nowadays cut down on their expenses and the market is facing a very low trend”.
Yogesh Lakhani strangely enough confesses that he does not get time to watch films.” I watch just around 6 to 7 films in a year. Shah Rukh Khan respects me a lot. In any party or get together when someone is talking about outdoor publicity he always makes it a point to refer my name to everyone. Hrithik Roshan, Salman Khan, Ranbir Kapoor etc are really nice, though my favourite is Shah Rukh Khan any day”.
His crystal clear vision and enormous will-power have led him and his establishment Bright Advertising to the heights of success. Yogesh Lakhani wishes to adapt himself with the ever-changing industry and that is why he is looking forward to try digital hoardings in the city. He wants to couple his innovative ideas with the latest technology to create something more effective and useful.
For his great achievements and outstanding work, Yogesh Lakhani has been felicitated with a number of prestigious awards. Recently, International Human Rights Council awarded him with “Dr. Radhakrishnan Memorial Award” for his immense contribution towards the betterment of society.
Yogesh signs off on a philosophical note. “Success does not lie in results but in efforts, and being the best is not important, doing the best is all that matters. Only a persistent and strong-willed person can understand that if he has the courage to face the storm only then will he witness the grandeur of the limitless blue sky.”
