For decades, the advertising ecosystem in India followed a simple rule: the one who chooses the production partner owns the outcome.

Clients trusted agencies.

Agencies selected production companies.

And agencies took full accountability—for cost control, creative quality, timelines, and reputation.

Clients met production houses. Budgets were discussed. Sometimes negotiated. But responsibility never moved.

That system wasn’t perfect. But it was transparent.

Then Covid arrived—and the system didn’t evolve. It quietly broke.

As agencies downsized, clients absorbed a wave of ex-agency professionals—producers, planners, creatives, account managers. Along with experience, they brought something more powerful: relationships without responsibility.

Today, an increasing number of clients no longer ask agencies to recommend production partners. They call production companies directly.

Officially, this is explained as speed. Unofficially, it’s about control. And quietly, it has become about money.

“Earlier the agency handled production. Now I do. I know the production guys personally. Why wouldn’t I call them directly?
It saves time. And yes, sometimes it pays better.”
— Client-side marketer

When a client bypasses the agency and appoints a production company directly, something critical disappears: independent accountability.

There is no neutral curator of quality. No professional negotiator with skin in the game. No one whose reputation is on the line if things go wrong.

And nature hates a vacuum.

Production companies today are not sprawling studios with deep buffers. They are lean teams surviving on thin margins. Whoever controls the work controls survival. And when that control shifts from an agency system to an individual client-side marketer, ethics become… flexible.

“We don’t ask questions anymore. Whoever gives us work, we keep them happy. Agency or client—it doesn’t matter. We can’t afford to choose ethics over survival.”
— Producer

This is where the industry must stop lying to itself.

What is being sold as 'direct collaboration' is, in many cases, brokerage.

Commissions don’t show up on invoices. Kickbacks don’t sit in spreadsheets. They live in favours, future promises, consulting retainers, and silent understandings.

“When clients call directly, you know what they expect. It’s not written anywhere. But you understand the arrangement.”
— Producer

A new generation of client-side professionals—many young, many ambitious, many trained in agencies—have discovered a shortcut. Instead of building brands, they build side economies. Instead of safeguarding budgets, they monetise access.

“I came from an agency. I know how production works. So why should the agency sit in between? They call it conflict of interest. I call it understanding the system.”
— Client-side marketer

The damage is structural.

Agencies lose authority but retain blame. Production companies lose independence but retain pressure. Clients lose quality but retain the illusion of control.

And brands? Brands pay twice—once in inflated costs, once in compromised craft.

The most dangerous part is how normal this has become.

It is now described as 'smart marketing.' As 'cost efficiency.' As 'owning the ecosystem.'

But ask one uncomfortable question:

If the agency didn’t choose the production partner, who is accountable when the film fails?

“The brand gets the film anyway. The agency still gets blamed if it fails. So honestly, where’s the risk for me?”
— Client-side marketer

Agencies charge supervision fees for a reason. Supervision is not overhead. It is insurance. When an agency selects a production company, it risks relationships, reputation, and future business.

“We’re still held accountable for the film. But we no longer control who makes it. It’s like being asked to guarantee a product
you didn’t manufacture.”— Agency leader

When a client selects directly, there is no equivalent risk. Only upside.

This is not efficiency. This is arbitrage.

And arbitrage without transparency is corruption—whether the industry is comfortable admitting it or not.

“If we insist on routing everything through the agency, we simply won’t get called again.”
— Producer

The industry doesn’t need another purpose manifesto. It needs a hard reset on accountability.

If clients want to own production decisions, they must also own the consequences—cost overruns, diluted craft, ethical grey zones.

You cannot outsource responsibility and still claim integrity.

The uncomfortable truth is this: The moment agencies lost the right to choose production partners, advertising stopped being a craft-driven business and started behaving like a trading floor.

“Clients say agencies are expensive.But supervision costs money because corruption costs more.”
— Agency leader

Until the industry is willing to acknowledge what this system has quietly become, the rot will continue—polished on the outside, compromised underneath.

And everyone will keep pretending not to see it.