By Ashish Bhasin
To me, Sidharth was more than a colleague. He was a dear friend, not just to me, but also to my family. His death has come as a shock and is a huge personal loss; 43 is no age to go. Most of us are still in disbelief. While everyone knows that he was a big digital guru and a tremendous creative talent, only those who knew him well and interacted extensively with him know just how good a human being he was.
Whatever he did, he did with love – whether it was building his team, whether it was his work, or interactions with colleagues and clients. He simply exuded love. This is a quality that very few leaders have. You know how we often say there is a vacuum when a person passes away. With Sidharth, there will be no vacuum because the love he showed throughout his life will live on in the lives of those he made an impact on. When people remember him, they will remember his love.
His humility was another wonderful thing about him. He was self-deprecating and would always give credit to his team rather than accept it himself. In fact, I remember back in 2019 when we were at Cannes together and Webchutney was winning a Grand Prix, I jokingly chided him saying, “What are you wearing? You’ll be going up on such a big stage to pick up your award!” He was clear that he would not be going up on stage, but would rather be sitting with me and downing a few beers instead. Let the kids pick up the award, he said.
Like all of us, he had his ups and downs. Some years ago, after I had taken charge of Webchutney, Sidharth wanted to give up and move on to something different. That was when I had my first serious chat with him. I told him that there was still so much more that Webchutney could do and that his only competition was himself. And that was true. “You make me famous, and I’ll make you rich” – those were my words to him then. This was back when creative agencies still worked in a relatively traditional way, and no one ever imagined that a digital agency could be a creative one too. Sidharth made that happen. After that, the awards simply followed for Webchutney at Goafest, at Kyoorius, and at Cannes as well. They were picking up awards not just for their digital work but also work in other categories such as creative and even PR. There was simply no stopping Sidharth! His parting gift to Webchutney and to India, as well, was in steering the agency towards the prestigious ‘agency of the year’ title at Cannes last year. Through all this success, he remained humble and was always quick to shine the spotlight on his colleagues and the team.
My last conversation with him was just a couple of days ago, and we actually planned to meet on Monday next week. That meeting is going to have to wait for some time.
(The writer is co-founder & chairman, RD&X Network, & former CEO, APAC & chairman India for Dentsu)