YOGESH LAKHANI BIRTHDAY SPECIAL INTERVIEW: "I Shun all Kinds of Vices Because I want to Lead the way for a Bright Way"

“I SHUN ALL KINDS OF VICES BECAUSE I WANT TO LEAD THE WAY FOR A BRIGHT WAY,” Says DR YOGESH LAKHANI, Chairman and Managing Director, Bright Outdoor

Hailing from a lower-middle-class Saurashtrian family of Mumbai, young 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.

Jyothi Venkatesh

After an adventurous journey of more than four decades, his company Bright Advertising stands like an impeccable tower in the industry. The company’s name is considered as the synonym to “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 that winner who faced all the obstacles and strived hard to reach the zenith of success. With a pan Mumbai presence, this company asserts that no one covers 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 etc.

With a strong hold on the out-of-home advertising industry, Yogesh Lakhani is one person who started his journey from scratch and emerged as a winner. Having a very calm and considerate personality, he believes in brightening the advertising industry with his innovative and creative ideas. Not only had his mother donated her eyes and skin as part of the family's pledge to contribute to society before her demise, but businessman Dr Yogesh Lakhani, Producer and CMD of Bright Outdoor Media Pvt Ltd, is a popular name in Outdoor Media and a successful businessman known for his good Samaritan acts in India. He has been associated with a maximum number of films, corporates and events in India and abroad.

Unfortunately, Yogesh Lakhani's mother Kusumben Jeevanlal Lakhani passed away last year. His mother had donated her eyes and skin after she left for heavenly abode. Lakhani's mother, who was 77, did many good deeds in her life and she also planned to donate her eyes and skin. Dr Lakhani says, "It is important to donate your organs and I am proud that my mother planned to donate her eyes and skin. People must create awareness about organ donation."

Lakhani is also associated with many NGOS and social associations. He has been doing social work for the last 20 years. He has been distributing free food grains to more than 300 needy people in Borivali every month . He is also associated with the Dialysis Hospital in Kandivali West. He is also running his old age home .

Vardhman Stankvashi Jain Sangh from Borivali West along with Sponsor businessman and philanthropist Dr. Yogesh Lakhani of Bright Outdoor Media distribute fresh food to more than 200 needy people including Old Age at Borivali West every year. They keep social distance while distributing the food packets and also arrange vehicles for free home delivery to Old Age people. Dr. Yogesh Lakhani says, "It's our responsibility to look after senior citizens and poor people who work on daily wages. In this Pandemic situation we have to stay safe at home. I also request people to stay at home and look after their parents. God has given us this opportunity to look after each other and be with one’s family

The ever smiling and energetic Chairman and Managing Director of Bright Advertising Agency- Dr Yogesh Lakhani is bright forever. Though the city of Mumbai, like every other place in India and the world is afflicted by the deadly novel coronavirus, Yogeshbhai makes it a point to attend his office every day all the way from Borivali where he stays till Andheri, braving the traffic.

At the outset, he accepts our best wishes for his birthday as his birthday falls today on September 25 but tells us that for obvious reasons he has curtained the magnitude of his birthday celebrations this year, though in general every year, he holds his birthday parties lavishly in the presence of stars. Though he divulges his real age to me off record, he says that he would only like to be told that he is ever bright, whatever be his age, because he feels that he is always very young at heart.

Dr Yogesh has, like Dhitubhai Ambani, risen from rags to riches and struggled in his own way. When asked about his journey, Yogshbhai states, “Hailing from a lower middle-class Saurashtrian family of Mumbai, I confronted many setbacks that resulted in me becoming a very strong person. All the responsibilities of looking after the family fell on my tender shoulders. I had to work day and night to earn their livelihood but this situation did not take away my dream of being an achiever.

It was with persistent hard-work and tenacious nature that Yogeshbhai managed to lay the foundation of Bright Outdoor Media way back in the year 1980 and went on to become one of the pioneering leaders in the outdoor advertising field. “From a single room office in a garage in Malad to a well-renowned establishment, now owning the entire eighth floor in Andheri Link Road, I think I am really blessed as well as lucky that God has actually blessed me to make an exponential growth that is astonishing as well as appreciable. After an adventurous journey of more than four decades, I am glad my company Bright Outdoor Advertising stands like an impeccable tower in the industry”.

The biggest strength of his company is that the name by itself is considered as the synonym to “Advertising”. “With a pan Mumbai presence, I can proudly say with humility that no one covers this dream city as well as we do today. There are several competitors for us. In Mumbai itself, there are around 40 competitors and around 4000 all over India. Bright today boasts of more than 1400 hoardings across the city. We offer 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 etc”.

As the market leader and trend setter among outdoor hoarding agencies, Yogeshbhai says that he has 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 Shahrukh Khan, Salman Khan, Ranbir Kapoor, Hrithik Roshan, Akshay Kumar, Rnveer Singh,  Deepika Padukone etc”.

Though today he has created a huge name in the industry and become a favorite among the celebs, it is interesting to note how he made a dent in the industry forty years ago. “I entered the glamorous Bollywood Industry with the outdoor advertisement of Venus Films’ movie “Pyar Kiya To Darna Kya” in the year 1990. Since then, my company has become the one stop destination for almost every movie that releases on the big screen. For the past two and a half decades, I am also working with distinguished award functions such as Femina, IIFA, Filmfare etc and for the last few years, I am also hosting my own Bright Awards”.

Yogeshbhai has managed to share a very good bond with the big banners like Yashraj Films, Dharma productions, UTV, Eros, Vishesh Films etc. The biggest secret of his success is simple. “I also sponsor awards. I am self-made; I have had my own office since 1980. I also train out the fresh slot, since many college students want to get trained by me. If today I am successful, I’d say that the entire credit ought to go to my late parents. I work 15 hours a day. Ask any star who he or she approaches for outdoor publicity and I am one hundred percent sure and confident that the maximum number will take only my name”.

When asked who he feels is his competition, Yogeshbhai just smiles. “There are many but all are money-minded and work only on a commercial basis which is not the case with me. I try my best to support the producers, whether they are making big, small or medium budget films. Sometimes when the film does not score well at the box office I even offer to cut down my rate for them and am not at all egoistic”.

Yogeshbhai confesses that he had actually started his career from zero.”I do not forget at all the fact that I had started my career from the scratch, from being a zero to being the hero. I remember I used to even sell newspapers and match-sticks. Now I am amongst the very top few. I had even started Bright Outdoor Digital media by focusing on Twitter, FaceBook and other social media. We keep improving our work. We support regional films as well be it Marathi or Bhojpuri or any other. If any one comes to my office with some work, I don’t let anyone go back with empty hands”.

After producing Smile Please and Rafoo Chakkar, he is yet to come up with any more film as a producer. Why? He is brutally honest. “Though I had produced two small budget films, I’d confess honestly that after facing failure I have decided to drop the plans of production. I did not have experience so I started with small budget films as after that I had also thought of doing big budget films, but fate willed otherwise”.

Yogeshbhai is happy and proud that this year, he has completed the dialysis operations for about ten thousand poor people in the city of Mumbai. “I do not charge the poor people for their operations but I make it a point to charge a modest fee of Rs 500 for the middle class people for the dialysis operations. Also during the ongoing lockdown, I made it a point to donate sums ranging from Rs 2,500 to Rs 10,000 to different poor people, including journalists who have been rendered jobless, especially the freelancers.

Yogeshbhai , who took pride in looking after his old parents religiously, till their last breath, says that he was thrilled to have bagged an award at the London Parliament for his yeoman services to not only the poor in the society but also for his business of hoardings. The philanthropist that he is, Yogeshbhai has not at all retrenched his staff and even today his office runs, with 60 and odd staff. The staff members attend the office every day and he managed to give them 50% salary, in the initial days when the pandemic had started for almost six months even though he was not making profits, as he says his business is down by 30% due to the onset of coronavirus in the country.

What did you do to do away the sufferings of those who were afflicted with the corona virus during the ongoing lockdown? I ask Yogeshbhai. Pat comes the reply, straight from his heart, “The first thing that I did when the novel coronavirus started in India was to hold an awareness campaign for BMC about what exactly the ailment is and how to take precautions by way of sanitizing and wearing masks when you go out and meet people. I came up with free hoardings for the citizens all over Mumbai city and suburbs. In fact, I have also been awarded with certificates felicitating me for being a diligent corona warrior.”

As a socially aware citizen, though I am into the hoarding business with my Bright Outdoor Advertising, I have always made it a point to support all social and religious functions which are held in Mumbai from time to time with my generous contributions and donations. I have learnt a lot from my late old parents that if I help others generously God up there will also come forward to help me as far as health and wealth are concerned. I still make it a point to walk at least a kilometer or two every morning because I feel that it is very necessary to maintain good health.”

Yogeshbhai continues with bated breath, “I shun all kinds of vices. I can vouch safely that I do not touch vices like alcohol, tea or coffee, or for that matter pan zarda, forget drugs. Because there is more tension and less profits in this business of hoardings today, if I want, I can retire even today as I have put in 41 years of glorious service and enjoy every day of my life and have a happy and contented family which consists of my wife and my six year old son but I do not want to make others suffer because of my decision to take it easy. You see, as many as 600 people who are connected with me thanks to my business, are liable to be rendered jobless if I take the rash decision of calling it a day as far as my business is concerned.”

Yogeshbhai is all praise for the Chairman of the Mayapuri group- Mr. P.K. Pajaj, who is steering the company without bothering about tireless efforts and  coming up with not only programmes on TV but also a weekly like Mayapuri, besides online platforms like Mayapuri online and the popular English portal bollyy.com .Yogesh is planning to celebrate his birthday this year too by distributing food grains and fund to the inmates of an andh ashram at D.N. Nagar near his office in Andheri, an old age home as well as an anath ashram.

Dr Yogeshbhai is now all set to make his foray into the digital industry with a Zoom like app named Bright Sherly, which will let space on line to conduct businesses, webinars with expert opinions and also host press conferences now that the lockdown has come up with its own sets of hurdles for businessmen as well as common people in various professions.

Says Dr Yogeshbhai, “In the field of technology, we at Bright are bringing for the first time in India a special mobile appliance where you can come in contact and also arrange a meeting with different categories of people, experts and top celebrities directly through live webinars. Like we say the giving mark is hidden. The present time is the proof where we have turned disaster into a ‘bright’ opportunity. I can say proudly that five youngsters from our Saurashtra Bhavnagar city and one of their mentors and a teacher have come up with a mobile application where you can meet professional experts directly through video conferences on the same platform. Bright has brought out the meeting app, where you will find the rare confluence of quality as well as excellence, experiences and confidence and last but not the least remedy as well as training.”

Talking about the menace of Covid virus during the ongoing pandemic, Dr Yogesh says that it has affected his social activities in the sense that he has stopped distributing the monthly provisions in the form of grains to residents who are from the lower strata in Borivali for the past one and a half years, a practice which he had started almost eleven years ago, though he used to distribute it to thousands of people before Covid set in way back in March last year in and around Mumbai.

Yogesh plans to restore his activity as early as possible when the government of Maharashtra relaxes the stringent conditions imposed on not letting more than 20 people congregate at one time in public. “I have a gut feeling and I am confident that Covid will not affect me, my family and my staff because I have positivity and spread cheer as well as positivity all around me in my daily life and never think ill of any one. I am also not at all jealous of whatever I find around me because I am content to the core.

Dr Yogeshbhai reiterates that Mumbai will limp back to normalcy after having been in a limbo for the past year and a half due to the lockdown only if the government of Maharashtra allows theaters as well as local trains to operate in full swing, because in the absence of frequent trains for the common man, there is a lot of chaos on roads with heavy traffic and less frequency of the BEST buses at any time of the day.

Dr Yogesh Lakhani confesses that when he was younger, he used to spend Rs 1.40 paise to buy tickets and sit on the front seat and watch films at Mira Road at Santok theatre or Katurba at Malad because he was fond of watching films . In fact he says that he used to give on rental basis video and cassettes and TV set because he was fond of films. Yogeshbhai adds that he has also acted in small roles in Rahul Shetty’s Dilwale and Madhur Bhandarkar’s Calendar Girls, Neil Nitin Mukesh’s By Pass Road , Saif Ali Khan starrer Bazaar though I am not all interested in acting, but because all the producers and actors happen to be my dear friends and insist that I should make my presence in their films in a small way just because they consider me as their lucky mascot and I can never say No to them. I have also gone for in film branding of my company in many films for the same reason”

Talking about his business today, Dr Yogesh concedes honestly that it is growing but very slowly and steadily. “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 60. Mumbai alone has 700 to 800 hoardings of Bright Outdoor hoardings which were 1000 earlier. Now the market is very big but the big-budget films nowadays cut down on their expenses and the market is facing a very low trend. Not only the pandemic but also the rising costs and Inflation have affected the business a lot

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 to my name to everyone. Hrithik Roshan, Salman Khan, Ranbir Kapoor etc are really nice, though my favorite is Shah Rukh Khan any day”.

His crystal clear vision and enormous willpower have led him and his establishment Bright Outdoor Advertising to the heights of success. Yogesh Lakhani wishes to adapt himself to the ever-changing industry and that is why he is looking forward to trying out digital hoardings in the city. Says Dr. Yogesh Lakhani, “I wish to also implement a couple of my 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, including the International Human Rights Council’s  “Dr. Radhakrishnan Memorial Award” for his immense contribution towards the betterment of society. “Success does not lie in results but in efforts, 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 he will witness the grandeur of the limitless blue sky”, says Dr Yogesh Lakhani.

I ask Dr. Yogeshbhai Lakhani what the secret of his success till today is and he chips in quite modestly that he believes in winning not only his business tenders but also several hearts by keeping his ‘rates’ quite reasonable as well as moderate and see to it that it does not at all pinch the producers who struggle against odds to make lavishly budgeted films for the sake of entertaining the audiences.”

Dr Yogesh explains. ‘”I have supported several producers and stars when they were struggling in the initial days of their acting by giving them discounted rates for their hoardings but after they shot to fame in public and became superstar, everyone of them has made it a point to repay me by supporting me in my business too by recommending to their producers to ask me to look after the hoardings of their films. I am of the opinion that money is very important in life. We were poor and I have struggled enough and burnt midnight oil besides surviving by eating just a vada pav or two to prevent hunger at nights for not just one or two but five years at a stretch to have learnt that but I will reiterate that money is important for life but it is not life itself at any cost.”

 Dr Yogesh reiterates that he has absolutely no regrets that he is not able to talk in English fluently when he goes to different parties socially because he is happy that besides his mother tongue Gujarati, he is also aware of language like Hindi which is our national language and Marathi which is the says that we all should be thankful to God up there for giving us hands and feet and a good life and hence we should work not only honesty but also very hard. I have tasted poverty when even my relatives did not come forward to help my parents or me and my late sister

Signing off this interview at his office by ordering for me ‘a rice plate thali’ consisting of puri bhaji and rice and dal, Dr Yogeshbhai concludes. “I am more than happy with the way my career has shaped over the last 41 years. I am happy doing publicity and what’s more, I pray to God to help me do my job as well as social service to the community till my last breath. I want to die with my boots on after being of some service to the society at large".