MAM
Publicis Media names Atique Kazi CEO & Gautam Surath chief strategy officer
MUMBAI: Publicis Groupe India has unveiled a major leadership reshuffle, appointing Atique Kazi as chief executive officer of Performics India and elevating Gautam Surath to chief strategy & transformation officer. The moves mark a new chapter for the digital marketing agency.
Kazi brings over 20 years of expertise in digital media, technology, and data-driven marketing. Reporting to Lalatendu Das, CEO of Publicis Media South Asia, he will focus on driving programmatic excellence, platform-led solutions, and transformational client outcomes.
Surath, leading the newly formed strategy & transformation team, will strengthen capabilities across influence, data, analytics, search, commerce, programmatic, and martech, while supporting a smooth transition for Kazi.
Lalatendu Das said, “Atique’s vision and experience make him an outstanding addition. Gautam’s promotion strengthens our strategic capabilities. Together, they position Publicis Media India for accelerated growth and innovation.”
Surath added, “It has been a privilege to shape Performics India’s growth. In my new role, I aim to integrate media, data, AI, and commerce to drive client success and support Atique during his transition.”
Kazi commented, “Performics India stands at an exciting crossroads where data, technology, and creativity converge. I look forward to building solutions that are genuinely transformational for our clients and shaping the next chapter of our growth.”
With this leadership duo at the helm, Publicis Media India is poised to accelerate its digital journey, deepen client impact, and set new benchmarks in the rapidly evolving marketing landscape. The appointments signal both continuity and ambition, promising an exciting era ahead for the agency and its clients.
Brands
IICT partners with Gativedhi to bring studio production tools to students
New MoU lets students explore AI-driven production pipelines for AVGC-XR
MUMBAI: The Indian Institute of Creative Technologies (IICT) has teamed up with Gativedhi Technologies to give students a front-row seat to modern studio production. The collaboration will integrate Gativedhi’s AI-powered production intelligence platform, Shotrack, into academic programmes, letting students experience the workflow systems used by animation, VFX and gaming studios.
Under the MoU, faculty, students and researchers will get hands-on access to Shotrack through beta programmes, pilot deployments and academic evaluations. This will allow them to explore simulated production pipelines, understand asset management, track tasks and monitor schedules, essentially seeing how complex projects come together behind the scenes.
Shotrack is designed to tackle a key industry challenge: when multiple studios work on the same project, differing internal systems often create bottlenecks, slow approvals and complicate version control. The platform provides a unified production environment, enabling smoother collaboration across distributed teams while generating operational insights and predictive analytics to optimise crew allocation, forecast schedule risks and manage costs.
The collaboration also opens doors to Gativedhi’s wider ecosystem. Upcoming tools include StudioTrack, for studio operations management covering budgeting, recruitment and IT infrastructure, and WorkTrack, which measures workflow efficiency and team productivity across industries.
IICT plans to embed these tools into programmes covering animation pipelines, VFX workflows, gaming production and media project management. Students will also benefit from guest lectures, masterclasses, workshops, internships and research projects that connect academic learning with real-world studio practices.
IICT CEO Vishwas Deoskar, said the partnership provides “An environment where production pipeline tools can be explored, tested and refined while students gain insight into how large-scale productions are organised.”
Gativedhi Technologies founder & CEO Senthil Kumar added, “This collaboration introduces students to real-world studio management tools and helps us improve our platform with academic feedback.”
With Shotrack in classrooms, India’s future animators, VFX artists and gaming producers will get a taste of studio life long before they step into one.
