A little girl in a frilly white dress twirls her way into a pack of detergent, to the tune of a catchy jingle.

Together with the Liril girl cavorting under a waterfall and Amul's plump little moppet, the Nirma girl remains one of the most enduring images from the television ads of the eighties. 

The ad catapulted a brand, which emerged from the backyard of a young chemist and promoter from Gujarat, Karsanbhai Patel, to dethrone Surf, the detergent heavyweight of the storied multinational that created the market in India - then HLL (now HUL or Hindustan Unilever). 

Detergent till then was a premium product, with most households using laundry soap instead. But as vegetable oil price increased, synthetic detergents became the choice, popularised by HUL's roadshows in villages. However, by the seventies, high petrochemical prices led to an increase in detergent prices. 

The time was ripe for a low-cost, no-frills alternative to Surf. 

Patel's door-to-door campaign in 1969 with a detergent, encased in rudimentary packaging, was timed just right. By paring production, marketing and distribution (a single line of distributors who directly supplied the retailers) costs to the bone, he was able to sell Nirma at Rs 3 per kg. 

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