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Suresh Balakrishna to retire as chief revenue officer of The Hindu Group in July 2026
MUMBAI: Suresh Balakrishna, the feisty and highly respected chief revenue officer of The Hindu Group, will retire in July 2026, closing a chapter spanning over three decades in media and advertising. Since joining The Hindu Group in November 2018, Balakrishna has been a key driver of revenue growth, steering strategy across print, digital and on-ground platforms while reimagining marquee events in virtual formats and launching community-building initiatives that engaged audiences at scale.
A recognised industry voice, Balakrishna has frequently addressed seminars, served on juries, and guest lectured at institutions including MICA Ahmedabad, IIM Lucknow, VIT, SRM and Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication. In 2017, he was the only Indian media representative invited to the United Nations Leadership Council for the “Media for Social Impact” Summit in New York.
Before The Hindu, Balakrishna led Kinetic Advertising India as CEO for South Asia and the Middle East, drove three profitable divisions at Lintas Media Group, and held senior leadership positions at Mail Today, Zee Network, Hindustan Times, Hinduja Group, Apex Publishing, and The Times of India, shaping media, advertising and marketing strategies across India and the region.
Balakrishna also serves as a trustee of Aarsha Vidya Foundation, promoting the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita, Upanishads and Vedanta.
From pioneering rural communication tools to launching high-impact media brands and navigating digital transformations, Balakrishna’s career has been defined by audacity, vision, and results. As he prepares to step down, the message is unmistakable: in the media, bold leadership leaves a lasting mark.
AD Agencies
Fevicol releases its last ad campaign by the late Piyush Pandey
The adhesive brand’s last campaign by the late advertising legend Piyush Pandey turns an everyday Indian obsession into a quietly powerful metaphor
MUMBAI: Fevicol has never needed much of a plot. A sticky bond, a wry observation, a truth that every Indian instantly recognises — that has always been enough. “Kursi Pe Nazar,” the brand’s latest television commercial, is no different. And yet it carries a weight that no previous Fevicol film has had to bear: it is the last one its creator, the advertising legend Piyush Pandey, will ever make.
The film, released on Tuesday by Pidilite Industries, fixes its gaze on the kursi — the chair — and what it means in Indian life. Not just as a piece of furniture, but as a currency of ambition, a vessel of authority, and a source of quiet social drama that plays out in every home, office and institution across the country. Who sits in the chair, who waits for it, and who eyes it hungrily from across the room: the film transforms this sharply observed cultural truth into a narrative that is, in the best Fevicol tradition, funny, warm and instantly familiar.
The campaign was Pandey’s idea. He discussed it in detail with the team before his death, but did not live to see it shot. Prasoon Pandey, director at Corcoise Films who helmed the commercial, said the team needed five months to find its footing before they felt ready to shoot. “This was the toughest film ever for all of us,” he said. “It was Piyush’s idea, magical as always.”
The emotional weight of that responsibility was not lost on the team at Ogilvy India, which created the campaign. Kainaz Karmakar and Harshad Rajadhyaksha, group chief creative officers at Ogilvy India, described the process as “a pilgrimage of sorts, on the path that Piyush created not just for Ogilvy, but for our entire profession.”
Sudhanshu Vats, managing director of Pidilite Industries, said the film was rooted in a distinctly Indian insight. “The ‘kursi’ symbolises aspiration, transition, and ambition,” he said. “Piyush Pandey had an extraordinary ability to elevate such everyday observations into iconic storytelling for Fevicol. This film carries that legacy forward.”
That legacy is considerable. Over several decades, Pandey’s partnership with Fevicol produced some of the most beloved advertising in Indian history, building the brand into something rare: a household name that people actively enjoy watching sell to them.
“Kursi Pe Nazar” does not try to be a tribute. It simply tries to be a great Fevicol film. By most measures, it succeeds — which is, in the end, the most fitting send-off of all.
