Sylvie is now a star in the sky

Curtains fall on legendary ad, theatre man Sylvester daCunha’s role on earth; production moves to heavens, say friends

Doyen of the advertising industry and theatre thespian Sylvester daCunha passed away on Tuesday. ‘Sylvie’s’ inner circle and associates gave professional and personal glimpses of the man, the mischief, the moments they spent with him and memories they will relish and cherish.

Party hearty

Raell Padamsee president of Theatre Group Bombay (TGB) and MD and CEO of Ace Productions Pvt. Ltd. said, “Sylvie was a founding member of the TGB and like family to us. I recall him always encouraging us younger members of the theatre group. 

“He was the life of the party always singing and dancing and putting us younger members to shame!” A trailblazer in theatre and advertising Raell said, “he  started the concept of revue entertainment with his ‘I love Bombay’ series, my mother worked closely with him on this.”

Friends and relatives at the funeral of Sylvester daCunha at RC Church, Colaba, on Wednesday. Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi

Father figure

It is apt perhaps that celebrated food writer Kunal Vijaykar recalled the “lunches with Mr. daCunha at Willingdon Club” as he spoke about Sylvester daCunha. “Those lunches with my mentor happened fairly recently. I need to roll back many years to the days when Mr daCunha I called him that all through, literally taught me how to write at daCunha Communications, the advertising agency I joined post-college. I joined as a designer but daCunha added writer to my role too. He taught me about language, about how to punctuate. He helped me develop a style and ‘voice’ of my own. Mr daCunha also taught me proofreading, he was a proofreader par excellence. This may sound strange in a time today when many people do not even know what is proofreading!” laughed Vijaykar.

Topsy Turvy

Vijaykar added that Sylvester daCunha cast him in a play called 'Topsy Turvy'. Vijaykar said about his drama debut, “Mr daCunha was writing a character who could speak Marathi and English, and, being Maharashtrian I could speak both, also English with a Marathi accent, and that is how I bagged the role. He also gave me my first company car and, while giving me the keys he told me: after this, you will never be without a car.” Vijaykar said the legend showed him, “love like a father. I worked with him for 11 years and I left advertising, with all the skillsets he had equipped me with to make a go of a career outside the industry. I missed him then, though there were occasional meet-ups and the club lunches I mentioned, and I will miss him very deeply now.”

Love, warmth

Theatre veteran Dolly Thakore said, “We all were very close, Alyque (Padamsee) knew him very, very well, they were together from college, in fact. I remember Sylvie always full of mischief. The daCunhas are a large-hearted and very talented family. We were all in the same circle, there was love and warmth. There were no secrets from each other, whether it was our personal lives or in the workspace. Remember also that he was co-creator of the loveable moppet, the 
Amul girl.”

A gentleman

Sam Balsara chairman of Madison World said, “I have known Sylvie for the last 40 years and have always admired him. He played the game by the unwritten advertising agency rule book, as gentlemen do and like many good advertising men of the bygone era, divided his time between advertising and theatre, each feeding the other. May his soul Rest in Peace.”

Sylvie Lining

Pooh Sayani family friend, filmmaker and theatre lover said, “I have known Sylvie since I was a baby! He was one of my parents’ best friends. He used to spend hours in our top-floor flat at Chotu Terrace. It was the Theatre Group adda in those days! He was one of my favourite 'uncles'... though we were never allowed to say 'uncle or aunty' It was always Sylvie! Sylvie cast my child Aadore and me as mother and daughter in a short film he made based on one of his wife Nisha's very moving stories. I will miss him, especially, his wry sense of humour.” Raell Padamsee signed off with a message from TGB for thespian Sylvie. The message said: “Plans are afoot for the great production in the sky. With love from all of us.” The production is at planning stage but we are utterly butterly certain there is a Sylvie lining on the clouds in the sky today.

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