Born in Bangalore in 1965, Manmohan alias Maac was educated in this city and has a Bachelor’s Degree in Applied Art from Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath.
In 1989, he joined Ogilvy and Mather advertising in the art department and worked there for fifteen years. By the time he left to start Temple Advertising, he had been Creative Director for 8 years and a national creative resource at Ogilvy.
Some of his work on clients like Titan Watches, Allen Solly, Lee, Louis Philippe, TVS, IBM, 3M, Indigo Nation, Scullers, Reliance Trends, Wipro Technologies and Hindustan Levers has been commended at prestigious international advertising awards like The One Show (New York), Cannes, New York Art Director’s Index, and Clio.
Maac has been on the jury at the Asia Pacific Ad festival 2002, ABBY Mumbai 2008 and Bangalore Advertising awards 2000 & 2004.
He has directed over 25 advertising films. His interests also include photography, painting, sketching and sculpture. His bronze sculpture is in the permanent collection of the prestigious Lalith Kala Academi. He has also won the Kerala State Film Award as Best Art Director 2005 for a Malayalam feature film.
He now is Chief Creative Officer at Bates CHI & Partners India.
“I grew up in a house that gave me art and only art. My father was an artist, sculptor, model maker and illustrator. He was well-known in the art circles of Bangalore and was a big influence on me. I used to spend a lot of time with him in the hope that I’d one day be like him. In fact, the day I bid goodbye to advertising, I will only do pure art and look up to the sky and say thank you for all that He has done for me.”
Why are you into Advertising?
Not sure why I got into advertising. Actually I was keen to become an animator but due to financial pressures I had to forgo what I wanted to do, and I joined Ogilvy. Thought I’d work for a few years and then pursue my dreams but those few years became 18 years at Ogilvy.
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