Alankar@Avenues 2013 - Part 1

A date with the Dream-Merchant  at Alankar - Avenues 2013 

What are the things that touch your life daily? How do you feel when a movie or an advertisement touches your heart? How do you feel when you want to do something about the ongoing corruption in our society and cannot find a path?

Well, this year Alankar brings to you the man who can offer opinion on anything under the sun. Meet the Advertising Man of the Century, the Padmashree Award winner, the Guru of English theatre in India, India’s best known dream-merchant, Mr. Alyque Padamsee, the man who is behind these awesome moments that reach across millions or rather billions of hearts worldwide. Yet with so many achievements in his life, Mr. Padamsee has always followed the path of modesty and is known to be a down to earth person.

Born and brought up in Colaba, Mumbai, Mr. Padamsee has seen the way world has changed and has been the catalyst in that change. Mr. Padamsee started his first play in 1960s entitled, The Taming of The Shrew in Kulsum Terrace, his childhood home. Mr. Padamsee is still working on new plays in the same venue. Primarily Mr. Padamsee likes to work on the plays written by Shakespeare. He is the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award for Theatre from the Sangeet Natak Akademi, and over half dozen other Lifetime Achievement Awards.

Mr. Padamsee has devised so many characters and touch points in advertising world that it has now become difficult to see Mr. Padamsee different from the Indian Advertising Industry. These characters include the Kamasutra Couple, Hamara Bajaj, Cherry Charlie for Cherry Blossom Shoe Polish, MRF Muscle Man, the Liril girl, and many more.

Internationally, Mr. Padamsee is famous for his portrayal of Mohammad Ali Jinnah in Sir Richard Attenborough’s film GANDHI. He is also the only Indian to be voted into the International Clio Hall of Fame, the Oscars of World Advertising.

Mr. Padamsee has been associated with IIT Bombay through the initiative to create 10 Great Ideas That Will Change The World In The Next 50 Years. This year Mr. Padamsee is coming to IIT Bombay to deliver a talk on the theme “Young India: Slave of the Past, Pioneer of the future”, as an esteemed guest in Alankar, which is the guest lecture series organised every year by the School of Management, IIT Bombay.

So, impressed with the trailer, yet? Join us and explore more at Avenues, the Annual International Business Festival of School of Management, IIT Bombay.

By,

Rahul Adwani

SJMSOM, IIT Bombay