Obituary: A brilliant copywriter, Sujit Unni passes away at 37

The creative ad expert succumbed to sudden illness at Hiranandani Hospital, Powai, Mumbai yesterday morning. The reasons behind his death remained unknown at the time of filing this report.

Sujit Unni, national creative director at Big Fish Advertising, breathed his last on December 29, 2011. The 37-year-old advertising expert succumbed to sudden illness at Hiranandani Hospital, Powai, Mumbai yesterday morning. The reasons behind his death remained unknown at the time of filing this report.

With such an amicable personality (almost an industry consensus), Unni's untimely death has wiped off the New Year's cheer for many of his industry colleagues. Almost everyone remembers him as an "exceptionally talented copywriter, especially and phenomenally good with print work".

"Life is what happened to me when I was busy making other plans" is what his Google profile reads. Fondly remembered as the "good guy", he loved drumming, travelling and movies. He is survived by his wife and daughter.

"He loved music, too. I still remember the days when he would listen to music at full blast in office," says Satbir Singh, managing partner and chief creative officer at Euro RSCG. Unni joined Euro RSCG as creative director in 2005, and worked at its Mumbai and Delhi offices. He was with the agency for almost two years.

Armed with a specialisation in hotel management from IHM Bangalore, Unni was good at housekeeping, too, recalls Arun KT, creative director at Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide India - an ex-colleague and a close friend to Unni.

Unni started his advertising career with MAA Bozell in 1997. In two years, he moved to TBWA India (then TBWA Anthem), before moving to O&M in 2000. It was at Ogilvy that he formed a partnership with Santosh Patil, and the duo produced a fair amount of work for clients such as CPAA, STAR TV and Playwin.

After Ogilvy, and a stint of nearly two years with Euro RSCG, Unni joined McCann Erickson at its Bengaluru office as creative chief.

In 2009, he moved back to Ogilvy India as creative director for Mumbai and Bengaluru. Later, he went on to join Big Fish Advertising as national creative director.

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