{"id":1984,"date":"2026-09-24T19:53:23","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T10:53:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/india-marketing.jp\/india-news\/bridgestone-india-film\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T19:53:23","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T10:53:23","slug":"bridgestone-india-film","status":"publish","type":"india-news","link":"https:\/\/india-marketing.jp\/en\/india-news\/bridgestone-india-film\/","title":{"rendered":"Bridgestone India\u2019s 30th-anniversary film builds on the founder\u2019s motto"},"content":{"rendered":"
\nThis article is based on what we could verify As of September 24, 2026<\/strong> in public records and news reports from India. India revises its tax rules and regulations frequently, and the details here may have changed since. When making an actual business decision, please check the latest information with primary sources such as the ministries responsible and local experts.\n<\/div>\n

Bridgestone India has released a digital film titled \"Tyres Carry Life\" to mark 30 years of its India business. The announcement came in a release dated September 23, 2026 on the company\u2019s newsroom, and the film YouTube<\/a> can be found there. Its starting point is founder Shojiro Ishibashi\u2019s philosophy, \"Serving Society with Superior Quality,\" a line established as the company motto in 1968. Despite being an anniversary announcement, it does not mention unit sales, market share, or investment figures. Taking the founder\u2019s own words, rather than numbers, as its starting point<\/strong> is the point worth noting for Japanese companies that use company philosophy as a selling point in India.<\/p>\n

Released in the September 23 announcement, the copy put on display is the three words \"Tyres Carry Life\"<\/h2>\n

What was put forward is the three-word line \"Tyres Carry Life.\" The release introduces these three words as \"inspired by\" the founder\u2019s philosophy, without translating the company motto itself. The company motto is attached as the source, while a different line is put forward as the surface copy<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The comment comes from Rajiv Sharma, Executive Director \u2013 Sales and Marketing, Bridgestone India. He opens by saying, \"India is playing an increasingly important role in shaping the future of mobility.\" Later in the same remarks, he continues that \"millions of journeys\" begin on India\u2019s roads every day, positioning tires as more than a product of rubber, tread, and technology. This is the only place a quantity is expressed, and no figure with a specific order of magnitude is given.<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Item<\/th>\nWhat could be confirmed from the official release<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Initiative name \/ format<\/td>\n\"Tyres Carry Life\" \/ digital film<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Release announcement<\/td>\nRelease dated September 23, 2026 (13:20 Central European Time)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Film itself<\/td>\nyoutu.be\/y0kjF86xDcw<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Use cases cited as scenes<\/td>\nschool runs, family holidays, business journeys, road trips, late-night drives (per the official release and outlets that reprinted it)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Production credits<\/td>\nNot listed even in the official release \u2014 no agency, director, or cast credited<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/figure>\n

Bridgestone itself frames EV adoption and changing retail as the backdrop<\/h2>\n

The framing of EV adoption and changing retail structure as context is not media commentary but Bridgestone\u2019s own wording. The September 23 release states, \"As India advances towards a new era of mobility, shaped by electric vehicles, evolving customer expectations and a transforming retail landscape,\" and goes on to say the company will focus on strengthening customer value, accelerating innovation, and building partnerships. Manufacturing trade outlet Machine Maker reported the same content with explicit attribution, writing \"Bridgestone India said.\"Writing EV adoption and changes to the sales network into its own premise<\/strong> shows how a company with an existing product is reading the future demand structure.<\/p>\n

The five scenes the release lists as where tires are used are school runs, family trips, business travel, road trips, and late-night driving. This is a description of a continuity of responsibility that does not end when the finished product leaves the factory but continues after it is fitted, and it speaks to the positioning of tires in general rather than the film\u2019s actual footage.<\/p>\n

The 30-year count starts from the 1996 business launch; the plant began operating in March 1998<\/h2>\n

The starting year is stated explicitly in the official release. Bridgestone India began operations in India in 1996 and started local production in March 1998 at its first plant in Pithampur, Dhar District, Madhya Pradesh. It set up a second plant in Chakan (Pune) in 2013. 1996 + 30 = 2026, so this year\u2019s \"30 years\" checks out as counted from the year operations began.<\/p>\n

As for the form the 1996 entry took, Autocar Professional reported in a February 5, 2013 article that it was via a tie-up with Associated Cement Companies (ACC). However, neither the official release nor the remarks by Japan\u2019s ambassador to India discussed below mention ACC, referring only to \"the start of operations in 1996.\"The starting point for the 30 years, as the company itself presents it, is the year operations began, not the year of the tie-up<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The chief guest at the late-July ceremony was Japan\u2019s ambassador to India, who called it \"a symbol of the success of Japan-India economic cooperation\"<\/h2>\n

About two months before the film\u2019s release, the company held a 30th-anniversary ceremony in New Delhi. According to an August 4 release, the Chief Guest was H.E. Mr. Keiichi Ono, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to India and Bhutan. The ambassador said Bridgestone India\u2019s 30 years is not just the growth story of a single company but also \"a symbol of the success of Japan-India economic cooperation,\" and credited it with contributing to India\u2019s industrial development since its 1996 founding through plant investments in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. Placing the anniversary ceremony in the context of Japan-India economic relations is a precedent that companies expanding into India can readily put to use<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

From headquarters, Director, Representative Executive Officer, and CEO of EAST Nobuyuki Tamura attended and said the first 30 years built the foundation and the next 30 will create new possibilities. Bridgestone India\u2019s Managing Director is Rajarshi Moitra. A lineup that put the central government\u2019s ambassador and a headquarters executive officer on the same stage<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

If using company philosophy as a selling point, decide first whether to translate and put it forward directly or to attach it as a source<\/h2>\n

\"Serving Society with Superior Quality\" has the company itself as its subject, with the verb being \"contribute.\" \"Tyres Carry Life\" has the tire as its subject, and what it carries is the life of the person using it. Bridgestone India did not translate its company motto and put it on display; instead, it put forward three words that swap the subject and object, and attached the founder\u2019s name as the source. Japanese companies bringing their philosophy into an appeal in India will run into this same choice between the two. It is also worth deciding in advance which year to count a company\u2019s history from. For companies that entered through a tie-up or joint venture, how the starting point is taken can shift \"how many years\" by several years. As the ambassador to India stated at the ceremony, \"since the 1996 founding,\"what an outside guest of honor cites is the year the company itself has made public<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Set alongside Mercedes\u2019 140th anniversary and Jockey\u2019s 150th, the starting points of these anniversaries differ<\/h2>\n

In September 2026 in India, other foreign brands also ran anniversary-centered initiatives. For its \"140 Years. 140 Places.\" expedition marking 140 years since founding, Mercedes-Benz ran three S-Class cars through the India leg. Josy Paul, Chairman and CCO of BBDO India, which produced it, said, \"We didn\u2019t want India to be just another destination on a 140-year global journey. We wanted it to feel like a homecoming\" (Mercedes' 140th-anniversary world tour reaches India, what a journey with three S-Class cars is meant to say<\/a>). US-based Jockey launched \"150 Years Young\" on September 16, with the copy \"Never Stopped. Never Will.\" Its India operations have been run by licensee Page Industries for about 30 years \u2014 a local track record on par with Bridgestone India\u2019s \u2014 but its starting point is the expansion of use from underwear to everyday loungewear (Jockey asks India at 150, how far can an innerwear brand stretch?<\/a>). The founder\u2019s motto, the land traveled, the broadening of use \u2014 the three companies have each chosen a different starting point from the same kind of anniversary.<\/p>\n

The amount disclosed also differs case by case. Bridgestone did not list production credits even in its official release, a contrast with the Hershey\u2019s India commercial released on September 17, for which afaqs reported the production agency TBWA\\Lintas and even the director\u2019s name (Hershey's India's new commercial rescues a \"hard day\" with sweetness, and no celebrities<\/a>). The outlets that covered it also handled it differently: MediaBrief reprinted the official release almost verbatim (with only two words changed), Tyrepress summarized it, and Machine Maker rewrote it in its own words with explicit attribution. Even when the same description appears across multiple outlets, it does not amount to mutual corroboration if they all trace back to the same single release<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Practical information and related links<\/h2>\n