Shambhu Venkatrao Sista, commonly known by the name of Bobby Sista, who entered the world of advertising in early 1950s after he returned from London to take charge of Sista Advertising, India’s first ad agency which was founded by his father in 1934, has left for his heavenly abode.
Having entered the world of advertising in the 1950s after his father- Venkatrao Sista passed away in an airplane crash in 1951, Sista had amassed not just admiration but also recognition for doing what we today call ‘out-of-the box’ work in the ‘80s.
After the demise of his father, Sista had joined his father’s agency at just Rs 600 per month under the stewardship of Premnarayen who was brought in one of the agency’s board members to take over the reins of Sista’s Sales and Publicity Services.
In 1968, the agency’s directors got Sista to take care of the agency which was considered to be sinking at the time and within a decade, he did elevate the agency’s stature to being one of the top 10 agencies in India.
Post that, the agency teamed up with J Walter Thompson’s Vajid Mahmood and came to be known as AdArts. However, in 1998, Sista decided to sell his stake in the agency to Saatchi as liberalisation enabled international players to set their foot in the country.
In 2002, he founded Population First- an NGO that educates people about population and health issues and began running Laadli, a campaign to empower females. Later, he also started Saffron Consultancy.
Some time back, in 2015, he was also conferred with Advertising Agencies Association of India’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
