Grey's Amit Akali quits

After spending four years as co-NCD at the agency, Akali will venture out solo.

Grey Worldwide's national creative director Amit Akali has called it a day after being at the agency for four years. He is currently serving a three-month notice period, which ends on March 15.

Confirming the news to afaqs!, Akali says that he had been contemplating about taking the next step for some time. "As a creative person, you constantly want new challenges and excitement. I felt it was the right time to try something new. I am 39 and thought now is the right time to get out of the comfort zone and take that next big step. If I don't do it now, when will I?" he explains. Akali adds that he is interested in trying out other aspects of communication like digital, branded content and new media.

Commenting on his stint at Grey, Akali says that last year was exceptionally good for the agency as it won Campaign of the Year at Abby's, gold at Cannes Lions and its overall performance too was quite good at the international festival. Interestingly, it was the third 'Campaign of the Year' title clinched by the duo; it had done so twice at Ogilvy earlier.

He recalls that when he and Malvika Mehra, the agency's other NCD, joined Grey, within three months they won the Reliance Communications business. "We then went into different sectors. So, in telecom it was Reliance Communication, in automobile sector we got Honda and helped launched Honda Brio and won the whole Dell business for Bengaluru. So, business and award wise it's has been great," he says.

Akali along with Mehra joined Grey from Ogilvy Bengaluru, where they were group creative directors. He was with Ogilvy for six years, initially working from the Mumbai office. Earlier, he worked for Enterprise Nexus (Bates CHI & Partners) as associate creative director.

The duo worked as a team for the last 10 years. However, unlike the duo's previous stints together, this time Akali will continue alone. On going solo, Akali assures that nothing changes between him and Mehra. "The journey with Malu (as Mehra is known) has been fantastical. Other than the fact that we don't work together, nothing else changes and she will always be family. She is supportive of what I am doing now. It's part of the excitement and challenge," he states.