There are people who work for the media and there are some who become the media themselves, after long, fruitful stints in it. Deepak Gattani belongs to the latter set. He has made his mark in marketing, modeling, advertising, Live and TV, Direction and is now inching towards film direction.
Having post graduated in 1984 specializing in marketing, Deepak Gattani tuned his focus within two years after that by establishing his own advertising agency, Rapport advertising. Prior to his ad career, he had the experience of modeling in dozens of TVC and print campaigns over the coming two decades.
Deepak's entry into the film industry started. At a time when our films didn't enjoy the rigourous marketing campaigns they do now, Gattani perhaps was one of the pioneers who would believe that 'communication should actually sell what you film'. Thus began the marriage between his creative and salesmanship skills as he designed the communication design of many movies, most of which went on to become blockbusters – Khalnayak, Baazigar and Khuda Gawah,Khiladi, Roop Ki Rani Choron Ka Raja, to name a few. He had the opportunity to work in tandem with names like Mahesh Bhatt, Rajkumar Santoshi, Prakash Jha, Shekar Kapoor, GP Sippy, Subhash Ghai. Launched many faces including but not limited to, ShahRukh Khan, Ajay Devgan, Raveena Tandon, Akshay Kumar , Akshaye Khanna, Karishma Kapoor .
Meanwhile, his company's marketing campaigns continued to make bigger strides. In 1989, he launched what would later become a crucial component of his agency – the events arm of Rapport. Making a splash with a Michael Jackson lookalike , concert Gattani's events later assumed bigger and better proportions. Whether it was a 34-city India tour with Daler Mehndi , or a superlative Musical designed .. Dus Hazzaar 800 sau Ashano ke Pal. A tour with Asha Bhosle, his underlying mantra remained to be 'improvising on simple things to create large-scale activities.'
Rapport's success saw it getting into a joint venture with UTV, to become UNI Rapport. His multi-tasking brought out the best in him as he did continuous projects for Star TV, worked with the music industry – in particular with AR Rahman, Coke, Cadbury and Hindustan Lever Limited and produced and directed over 600 events and music videos.
Gattani credits his association with Rahman to have happened because of singer Hariharan, who introduced the two to each other in 1995. It is worth noting that with Rahman … this association continues today even after 16 yrs.
The media man hasn't ever put to rest the right hand side of his brain. While his passion for music and movies is apparent in his works, not many know that he is also a fine sculptor. As he now readies himself for another career peak, a directorial debut in films, it won't be long before Gattani is recognized by one and all as an industry by himself.
His work as a creative director is as follows;
- Mahayatra for Star Plus
- Zara Nachke dikah for Star one
- Shava shava for NDTV Imagine
- Dhoom Macha De for NDTV Imagine
- Ticket to Bollywood for star one
- Holi for NDTV Imagine
- Mission Ustaad for 9X
- Yeh shaam mastani for Sony TV
- Gold Awards
- AR Rahman 3rd Dimension North American Tour
- AR Rahman Jai Ho Concert 2009
- Sirf Ek Minute Mein for Sahara
- Jodi Kamal ki for Star Plus
- Nach Baliye for Star Plus
- The Police show at CCI club
- He Man (weekly game show) for Star One
- The Star Parivaar Awards
- The Screen Awards
- The Femina Miss India.
- Filmfare Awards
- Lata Mangeshkar Concert
- AR Rahman Live in concert..Unity of light, etc.
- A Bollywood Satged Musical..Phir Bhi Dil Hain Filmistani…a satire on the Indian Film Industry….Televised on star Tv.
- The Gladrags Mrs India
- The Daler Mehendi Concert
- Stardust Award
Also directed Music Videos, and a few Ad Films
- Music video for
- Hariharan
- Falguni Pathak,
- AR Rahman
- Nadeem Shravan
- Musiccurry's Sangu Naka etc.
- Ad films- Leo Matel- He man Brand
Many a 1st for Deepak Gattani
- The 1st Live Award Function To Be On TV - broadcast live ( Filmfare Awards 1992)
- 1st Multi City Tour Of A Concert - Coke Tour Daler Da 1998
- 1st Live 3D Concert -AR Rahman the 3rd Dimension concert in Australia/ Singapore / HK.
- 1st Ever Live Feature Film - Phir Bhi Dil Hain Filmistani *ing Akshay Kumare , Anil Kapoor , Govinda , Shilpa Shetty , Urmilla Matondkar , Gulshan Grover , Shakti Kapoor.
- 1st Ever Live Telecast Of A Festival - Sankalp Dandiya .
Now On His Next Journey To Make His 1st Feature Film.