Cheil India beefs up senior creative team

The agency has appointed Kartikeya Dixit and Soumya Shiva Nagabhushan as creative directors; Anand Gharat comes on board as senior creative director.

Cheil India has announced the appointments of Kartikeya Dixit, Soumya Shiva Nagabhushan, and Anand Gharat as part of its plan to strengthen the agency's senior creative team.

Dixit brings with him over 12 years of industry experience. Prior to joining Cheil, he was associated with McCann as creative director where he worked on brands such as Nescafé, Coca-Cola, Chevrolet, Dish TV, The Times of India, Subway, Dulux, Ireo, Panasonic, and Catch spices. He was earlier associated with IBD, Ogilvy & Mather, Rediffusion-Y&R, Dentsu, and K-Factor.

Nagabhushan, who has also worked as creative director with McCann, brings with him over 10 years of experience, and has handled brands such as Nescafe, the re-launch of Maggi, Coca-Cola, DishTV, Chevrolet, Ireo, and Sprite. Prior to that, he worked with Ogilvy & Mather, Rediffusion-Y&R, Lowe Worldwide, Mudra, and JWT.

Gharat, who comes on board as senior creative director, has more than 17 years of experience in digital advertising and digital media. The brands he has worked on include Tata Safari, Bajaj Pulsar, Vespa, Diu Tourism, Rajasthan Tourism, Johnnie Walker, FoxCrime, Mentos, Cadbury Dairy Milk, and Tata Sons. Prior to joining Cheil India, he was associated with OgilvyOne as senior creative director. He has also worked with TCG Software, Channel , and Tata Interactive Systems.

Commenting on the announcements, Sagar Mahabaleshwarkar, chief creative officer, Cheil South West Asia, says, "We are very choosy about the people we hire. When we met Dixit, Nagabhushan and Gharat, we were confident that we had found our new age ideators who will help us deliver on creativity and technology -- the building blocks of Cheil India."

Talking about the new appointments, Prasanna Kulkarni, creative head for digital, Cheil India, says, "Taking a step further to strengthen our creative capabilities, Gharat seemed to be the right choice. The expertise and insights that he brings to the table will surely help in delivering impactful campaigns for various brands."