Portfolio Night 2025 powers up India’s next-gen advertising talent
The One Club for Creativity, in collaboration with BBDO India, DDB Mudra Group, and TBWA\India, successfully concluded the highly anticipated fourth edition of Portfolio Night 2025. The event cemented its status as the country’s premier career-launching platform, connecting emerging talent directly with India’s most influential creative leaders.
This year’s Portfolio Night served as a high-octane proving ground, designed to bypass traditional hiring barriers and fast-track young careers. It offered participants the invaluable opportunity to receive direct feedback on their work, showcase groundbreaking ideas, and forge connections that will shape their professional future.
The 2025 edition set a new record with registrations filling up 72 hours ahead of the deadline. Over 115 emerging creatives convened for an evening of one-on-one portfolio reviews. This year’s talent pool was notably diverse, spanning academic backgrounds in design, planning, direction, content writing, and more, underscoring the interdisciplinary nature of modern advertising. A total of 35 top-tier jurors dedicated their time on October 6 (Virtual) and October 7 (In-Person, Mumbai) to mentor and identify the industry’s future talent.
The Mumbai edition kicked off with an inspiring address by Josy Paul, Chairperson & CCO, BBDO India, who set the tone for the evening with a powerful message to young creatives. “We don’t need you to fit in — we need you to stand out. To make us uncomfortable. Challenge us. Shake us. Make us see the world through your eyes. We don’t need replicas of what’s been done. We need sparks. We need your light. We need your truth,” he said.
Sumit Kumar emerged as the winner of the highly competitive 2025 Portfolio Night Mumbai in-person competition. Meanwhile, Kareena Batija took the top honour for the virtual pan-India edition. Both winners will now advance to the prestigious global Portfolio Night All-Stars program, joining a select group of winning creatives from host cities across the world. As All-Stars, Sumit Kumar and Kareena Batija will collaborate internationally to tackle a live, complex brief from this year’s exclusive global sponsor, Google. This highly coveted program includes intensive seminars and recruiting sessions with international industry leaders. The journey will culminate with the winning global All-Stars team getting an all-expenses paid trip to New York City to present their campaign at Creative Week 2026.
Speaking about this years’ experience, Rahul Mathew, CCO, DDB Mudra Group, said: “Portfolio evening has been a long-standing partnership between Omnicom and One Club. And it’s a reflection of our belief that talent is the only real asset we have as an industry. We’re always grateful to all the CCOs who turn up every year to support this initiative. This is about us spotting, encouraging and giving the next generation of talent the opportunities or even belief that they deserve.”
Russell Barrett, Chief Creative Experience Officer, TBWA\India, added: “It is always amazing to engage and interact with the next generation of creative talent. In an age of generative AI and mass-produced creativity, Portfolio Night is the best opportunity for us to interact with the raw and pure talent of these young creatives.”
The success of Portfolio Night 2025 in India reaffirms its vital role in developing a strong, globally competitive pipeline of creative talent for the advertising and design industry.
Jury Panel – Mumbai
Abhijit Awasthi, Founder, Sideways Consulting
Anusheela Saha, Creative Head, DDB Tribal
Hemant Shringy, CCO & Managing Partner, Wondrlab
Josy Paul, Chairperson & CCO, BBDO India
Kainaz Karmakar, CCO, Ogilvy India
Kapil Batra, President, Lowe Lintas
Kartikeya Tiwari, Digital Creative Partner, FCB Group India
Neville Shah, CCO, FCB Kinnect & FCB/SIX India
Pallavi Chakravarti, Founder & CCO, Fundamental
Parikshit Bhattaccharya, CCO, BBH India
Rahul Mathew, CCO, DDB Mudra Group
Roshni Kavina, NCD, L&K Saatchi & Saatchi
Russell Barrett, CCEO, TBWA\India
Siddhesh Khatavkar, ECD, DDB Mudra Group
Sindhu Sharma, NCD – North, Enormous
Shruthi Subramaniam, ECD, BBDO India
Swati Bhattacharya, Global Head, Lightbox Creative Lab
Vikram Pandey, CCO, Leo South Asia
Viren Noronha, Co-founder, The New Thing
Jury Panel – Virtual
Akshay Sheth, ECD, Ogilvy India
Geet Rathi, Independent Creative Director & Design Director
Harshada Menon, ECD, DDB Mudra Group
Monish Gupta, ECD, Havas India
Nilay Moonje, Creative Head & ECD, Sideways Consulting
Nitin Pradhan, Creative Head, Leo South
Pooja Manek, Creative & Founding Member, Talented
Pragati Rana, Regional Creative Officer – West and Founding Partner, Tgthr
Puneet Kapoor, CCO, Ogilvy South
Rohit Mukherjee, ECD, TBWA\ India
Ruchita Zambre, Creative Head, TBWA\India
Shruthi Subramaniam, ECD, BBDO India
Shyam Nair, ECD, 22feet Tribal Worldwide
Snigdha Malhotra, Sr. Creative Director, BBDO India
Sourabh Dubey, GCD, DDB Mudra Group
Vishnu Srivatsav, NCD, 22feet Tribal Worldwide
