MAM
Publicis India appoints Nishant Jethi as ECD
MUMBAI: Publicis India today announced Nishant Jethi as its new executive creative director. Jethi, who will report to the company’s MD and COO Bobby Pawar, was a senior creative director at Ogilvy and Mather.
Based out of Mumbai, Jethi will be responsible for not only raising the creative bar but also overlooking art and enhancing the work culture.
His appointment is in line with the agency’s mandate to strengthen its creative function across various divisions given the influx of work from multiple brands like ZEE, Citibank, HDFC MF, Skoda, Nerolac, Bharti AXA etc. He will work alongside Ramakrishnan Hariharan, who had recently joined the agency as head of creative.
Publicis India COO Bobby Pawar said, “Nishant is probably the sanest crazy man I’ve met. Beneath his rather sedate appearance lies a mind that zips along strange paths. His unique way to seeing things, great sense of design, a passion for making things with his own hands will help us elevate our game even more. The last time we worked together the agency we were at rocked. This time should be no different.”
Publicis India MD Srija Chatterjee said, “The creative function at the agency is being repurposed to cater to the growing demands of Clients that are looking at integrated offerings in an innovative & real-time basis. We have been churning out some really great work in the past few months that are creating meaningful conversations in the marketplace and also aiding brands achieve their desired objective. Having resources like Nishant Jethi into our fold will only amplify the quality of our offering and put us on a higher pedestal to keep delivering more.”
In a career spanning over 13 years, Jethi has worked with several leading agencies with an aim to create memorable pieces of work that strike an emotional chord with the audiences. At his best, Jethi has delivered award winning work for clients like Savlon, JSW Cement, Amazon-Kindle/Firestick/Echo, Dove etc.
Prior to his Ogilvy stint, Jethi worked an associate creative director at DDB Mudra and Leo Burnett as art director. His body of work includes working on diverse brands like Radio City, Bajaj Electronics, ITC Hotels, Reliance MF, Bank of Baroda, Big Bazaar, Inorbit among others.
Commenting on his new role Publicis India, Jethi said, “Publicis India has done some remarkable work in the past and it feels great to be a part of this intrinsic culture. I am thrilled to work with Bobby Pawar along with Ramakrishnan Hariharan, since I have worked closely with both of them before, and together I believe we can achieve new heights. I am happy with the team and clientele, and feel super charged for the journey ahead.”
Apart from work, Jethi uses his expertise to create meaningful work in the realm of arts and design. He is adept at creating hand-crafted wooden toys, as the design process of making them involves conceptualising, sketching, wood cutting, painting skills that come naturally to him.
MAM
Fringe festival finally hits Mumbai stage in March
60 plus shows from 10–15 March 2026 at NCPA plus Bandra venues.
MUMBAI: The Fringe is no longer on the fringe, it’s centre stage in Mumbai, ready to turn the city into a creative playground. After nearly 80 years of shaking up global performance culture from Edinburgh to Prague and Adelaide, the world’s largest open-access arts movement makes its India debut with the Mumbai Fringe Festival from 10 to 15 March 2026.
Kicking off at the iconic Tata Theatre, NCPA, the six-day celebration will spill across Bandra’s buzzing creative circuit, Khar Comedy Club, 3 Art House and indifferent @ Gharonda delivering nearly 60 performances in comedy, theatre, poetry, storytelling and experimental work. This isn’t a sit-down spectacle; it’s a city on the move, with audiences hopping between venues to catch new voices and bold ideas in their rawest form.
The lineup mixes homegrown stars with international heavyweights. Rohan Joshi, Kanan Gill, Varun Grover, Aakash Gupta, Priya Malik, Amandeep Khayal, Urooj Ashfaq and Amit Tandon bring the Indian edge, while global gems include Nigel Miles Thomas’s award-winning solo Sherlock Holmes: The Last Act, The Shakespeare Edit’s striking Macbeth adaptation and David Hoskin’s genre-blending Haunted House (mime, comedy, storytelling mash-up). True to Fringe spirit, the programme thrives on intimacy, invention and fearless creative risks.
Tickets are already live on Bookmyshow, with several shows sold out, signalling strong early buzz. Co-founders Steve Gove (of the 25-year-old Prague Fringe) and Simar Singh (UnErase Poetry) are steering the ship, united by the belief that Mumbai and India is primed for the Fringe model.
Steve Gove said, “Bringing Fringe to Mumbai has been a long-held dream. Cities around the world have embraced this model and watched it reshape their creative landscapes. Mumbai has the energy, the appetite and the talent to make this extraordinary.”
Simar Singh added, “The Fringe model gives artists complete freedom. It creates space for new voices and unexpected ideas to meet audiences directly. Mumbai deserves a platform like this.”
Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society chief executive Tony Lankester chimed in, “Born in Scotland nearly 80 years ago, the Fringe has always stood for joy, openness and giving everyone a platform with minimal gatekeeping… We are delighted to see the Mumbai Fringe carry this same spirit forward.”
In a country bursting with artistic tradition, the Fringe’s arrival feels both overdue and electric, a chance for audiences to experience unfiltered, up-close performance that has quietly shaped modern theatre worldwide. Grab tickets on Bookmyshow before the best spots vanish. Mumbai’s creative margins just got a whole lot louder.
