There are legends about what an innovative little marketing company Asian Paints was in its early years. It was a small Indian-owned business battling it out with a line-up of international paint giants -- and one of its early breakthroughs, was to endow its brand with a consumer-friendly personality, at a time when paints were generally presented as industrial products. The person who played a key role in making that happen was, of course, RK Laxman.