Cars24 - Sister Promise

A man sits in the driver's seat and swears on his sister. Not on his own life, on hers. She is in the next car with her son, and the boy points out, correctly, that his uncle is swearing on his mum. The uncle says nothing will happen to her, because Cars24 will give her the best price for her car. Write it down.

Sister Promise is one of three 44-second films in Cars24's Family Promises campaign, the first work from creative agency Talented for the used-car platform. Each film takes an oath every Indian family knows, Mother Promise, Mother-in-Law Promise, Sister Promise, and uses it to back a written policy. The man doing the swearing is Himanshu Ratnoo, the company's India CEO, playing himself. Shivang Monga directed all three for First December Films.

At a glance

• Brand: Cars24 India
• Agency: Talented
• Production house: First December Films
• Director: Shivang Monga
• Featuring: Himanshu Ratnoo, CEO, Cars24 India
• Campaign: Family Promises, three films
• This film backs: the Best Price Promise for people selling a car
• Launch: 17 February 2026 on the Cars24 YouTube channel
• Running time: 44 seconds
• Language: Hindi

The brief

Used cars are sold on trust, and trust is the one thing a used-car advertisement cannot simply claim. Every platform in the category says it inspects carefully and prices fairly. Cars24 wanted to stop saying it and start putting terms on paper: a lifetime warranty on every car it sells, a 30-day return window, and, for people selling to Cars24, a promise that the price they get will be the best available because the car is put in front of buyers across the country rather than valued by one person in a driveway.

Gajendra Jangid, co-founder and chief marketing officer of Cars24, framed it as a product decision before a marketing one: "We don't sell a car that we would not buy for ourselves and that has been a conscious choice." He also explained the casting: "Himanshu stepping into the film felt natural. When the India CEO stands behind something publicly, it reflects how seriously we take it internally."

So the films had a specific job. Make a policy feel like a personal guarantee, and do it in a way that an Indian family would recognise from their own living room.

The idea: the promise everyone already understands

Talented's creatives Sanket Audhi and Udit Joshi started from how Indians actually reassure each other. "Buying a car in India is rarely just a transaction. It's surrounded by opinions, advice and, most importantly, promises." The strongest promises in the country are not contractual. They are sworn on relatives.

Each film takes one of those oaths and attaches it to a policy. Mother Promise backs the lifetime warranty. Mother-in-Law Promise backs the 30-day return. Sister Promise backs the best price when you sell. The CEO swears, the family cross-examines, the policy holds up.

This is how Sister Promise plays out.

• A super sets the terms in the first second: best value for your car at Cars24, sister promise.
• Himanshu Ratnoo, in a dark polo, sits in a car and says "Meri kasam." A caption names him: CEO, Cars24.
• His sister, in the car beside him with her young son, is unimpressed. The boy points out that his mamu is swearing on his mother.
• Ratnoo insists nothing will happen to her, because the best price will be at Cars24. Write it down.
• She pushes back. Why should we believe you? A car can be sold anywhere in India.
• That is exactly the point, he says. The more people who see the car, the more offers it gets.
• Fine, she says, but what about payment? Before or after? Instantly, he says.
• An older woman leaning out of a third car delivers the verdict: nobody gives a guarantee like that. Go on, take the sister promise.
• The cars pull back to reveal where they are: four Cars24 hatchbacks and SUVs parked on a carpet in a green-walled living room.
• End card: Best Value, Sister Promise.

The policy is never read out as a policy. It is argued out as a family argument, with the sister asking the two questions any seller asks, why you and how fast do I get paid, and getting a plain answer to each.

The family is the focus group. Every objection a seller has is asked by a relative and answered by the CEO before the end card.

Casting a CEO who is not an actor

Putting a real executive on camera is a risk most brands avoid, and the film manages it by never asking Ratnoo to perform. He sits in a car, looks at his family, and swears. The heavy lifting goes to the people around him. The sister does the doubting, the boy gets the laugh, the older woman closes the sale. Magpie Casting found a family that argues like a family.

The CEO's presence is the argument. A brand spokesperson can promise anything. A named CEO putting his sister's name on a price is a different order of commitment, and the film is built so that the audience feels that difference without a line of voice-over pointing it out.

The shoot

The whole film is played through car windows. Shaaz Rizvi shoots the conversation as a series of over-the-shoulder frames from one car into the next, so the cars are the furniture of the scene and the family talks across them the way they would across a dining table. Nothing is on a road. Nothing moves until the final pull-back.

That pull-back is the film's one visual joke, and production designer Sunayana Sumit Sabherwal built it: a full living room, green walls, wooden windows, a patterned carpet, with four cars parked inside it. The cars are literally in the family home, which is where the campaign says a car belongs. Vineesh Vijayan at Studio Skwer graded the interiors warm and the cars saturated so the reveal reads instantly.

All three films share the cast, the set and the set-up, which is how a three-film campaign was produced as one job. Only the policy, the relative and the oath change.

Post and sound

Fatir Ansari cut the film, Rakesh Menon handled the online at Splices Studios, and Old Monk Studio did the CG. Jay Kshirsagar's music stays out of the way of the dialogue until the end card. Tilak Goswami mixed it. The captions in the first and last seconds carry the policy line in text, so the film works with the sound off in a feed.

Where it sat in the campaign

• 17 February 2026: All three films go live on the Cars24 YouTube channel: Sister Promise (best value when selling), Mother Promise (lifetime warranty), Mother-in-Law Promise (30-day return).
• 18 to 20 February 2026: Launch coverage in afaqs, Best Media Info, Campaign Brief Asia, Branding in Asia and Impact, most of it leading on the fact that the CEO fronts the work.
• 20 February 2026: First December Films publishes its own cuts.

Shivang Monga told Best Media Info what the films were reaching for: "Cars have always been a soft spot for Indian households, a source of pride and treated like a member of the family."

What the film proves

This is the reference to reach for when a brief needs any of the following:

• a founder or CEO on camera, directed so they never have to act
• a policy or terms-and-conditions message turned into dialogue people will actually watch
• a multi-film campaign shot as one production with a shared cast and set
• a Hindi dialogue comedy that lands in under 45 seconds
• a single production design idea doing the work of a visual effect

See more of our work, the director's reel and credits, or send us a script and a date.

Credits

• Client: Cars24 India
• Agency: Talented
• Production house: First December Films
• Director: Shivang Monga
• Executive Producer: Ganesh Pareek
• Senior Producer: Imran Patel
• Producer: Ankit Singh
• Director of Photography: Shaaz Rizvi
• Production Designer: Sunayana Sumit Sabherwal
• Offline Editor: Fatir Ansari
• Colourist: Vineesh Vijayan, Studio Skwer
• Music: Jay Kshirsagar
• Sound: Tilak Goswami
• Casting: Magpie Casting
• Featuring: Himanshu Ratnoo