- You’ve led creative across some of India’s most celebrated agencies and brands. How do you see the role of creativity evolving as technology continues to influence the way we ideate and execute campaigns?
Creativity will always be the soul. Technology just changes the body. AI, AR, real-time data, they don’t kill ideas, they stretch them. Today, it’s not just about a big idea. It’s about how that idea moves. Distribution is as creative as conception. A billboard isn’t just OOH anymore; it lives on social, gets shared, sparks traction. One touchpoint becomes many. The role of creativity is orchestration. Not a single TVC, but an ecosystem. Built to adapt, built to travel, built to feel human. Technology is the brush. Creativity is still the painter.
- In your experience, what’s the key to ensuring that brand storytelling stays authentic and emotionally resonant when campaigns are increasingly data-informed?
Data points the way. It doesn’t tell the story. The danger is when brands mistake information for emotion. Campaigns need roots in data, yes, but data must be shaped into something people actually want to engage with. Numbers must be visualized in ways that feel human, not clinical. Every data point hides a person, with fears, wants, contradictions. The job of creativity is to turn metrics into meaning. To make information look like a story, not a spreadsheet.
- As advertising shifts towards immersive, interactive formats, what creative opportunities do you see for brands to connect with audiences in ways that were not possible a few years ago?
Immersive isn’t just a buzzword; it’s the new canvas for brand behavior. Experiences are the way now. Ads can’t be one-dimensional. We already see it.
AR try-ons, shoppable livestreams, billboards that talk back, game worlds that double as campaigns, plus branded experiential content and on-ground activations powered by new-age technology, move us from broadcast to co-creation, from impressions to involvement, as audiences shape the idea in real-time and the campaign behaves like a living system.
- Having worked on both global and Indian brands, how do you think Indian creative work can carve out a stronger, more distinctive voice on the international stage?
Indian creativity has always been resourceful and fearless, shaped by constraint and chaos. We make more with less. We turn noise into narrative. And the world notices. Our campaigns already shine on global stages, not because we mimic Western polish, but because our work carries texture, humor, hustle, and plurality that feels original even in rooms that have seen everything.
India isn’t just a market; it’s a mood the world understands now. We’re a rising powerhouse. Our culture travels. So should our voice. To carve a stronger, distinctive presence, we must move from jugaad to export, stay truly Indian, take pride in our languages, rituals, contradictions, and design grammar, and build ideas born on our streets yet engineered for global scale, owning the brief, the craft, and the distribution without asking the West for permission.
- Looking ahead to 2030, what’s your vision for the ideal balance between human creativity and technological enablement in delivering truly impactful campaigns?
By 2030, the work will be done by two partners, human and machine, each doing what the other
can’t. AI handles speed, scale, and precision. Humans handle meaning, taste, and provocation. Feel first, then optimize.
The system is simple: people set strategy and ethics, AI runs data and dynamic creation, personalization happens at scale, learning loops refine in real-time, and one creative spine keeps every version true while the machines do the heavy lifting so the audience feels the heavy feeling.
- AI in Advertising – Superpower for Growth or the Industry’s Slow Poison?
AI is a hack, not a hero. A tool, not the idea. It makes things faster, sharper, sometimes invisible.
Use it for speed and scale. Keep taste with humans.
When used right, the audience never sees the scaffolding, only the story. That’s when it’s a superpower. But the moment we confuse the tool for the idea, that’s when the poison sets in.
But…
I fear that as AI crushes timelines, expectations will balloon. It’s still nascent. Still learning. Not magic. With AI moving into filmmaking, music production, voiceover, VFX, and beyond, clients may assume everything is in reach. Endless versions, last-minute pivots, cinema-grade polish at yesterday’s cost; and if that mindset tries to replace people and apprenticeship with prompts, the tool slips from superpower to slow poison.