Chennai, March 12, 2026: Advertising Club Madras has announced additional jury chairs for the 44th edition of the MADDYS Awards, its flagship annual awards celebrating excellence in advertising and marketing.
The latest announcement names Agnello Dias, Co-founder of Spinach Experience Design, as jury chair for the Film & Audio Craft MADDYS category. Preeti Vyas, Founder, Chairwoman and Chief Creative Officer at Vyas Giannetti Creative, will chair the Design & Print Craft MADDYS jury. Meanwhile, Rajesh Ramaswamy, popularly known as RamSam and Founder/Writer at The Script Room as well as filmmaker at Coconut Films, will lead the jury for the Regional Pride (Tamil) MADDYS category.
Last week, the club had revealed Ashish Khazanchi of Enormous, Anisha Iyer of OMD India, and Sabyasachi Mitter of ibs Fulcro as jury chairs for the Creative, Media and Digital MADDYS categories respectively.
Similar to last year, the awards will recognise work across six groups—Creative MADDYS, Design & Print Craft MADDYS, Film & Audio Craft MADDYS, Regional Pride (Tamil) MADDYS, Digital MADDYS and Media MADDYS—each evaluated by separate juries led by industry experts.
Commenting on the jury selection, Surej Salim, President of Advertising Club Madras, said, “The MADDYS went through a reinvigoration exercise in 2025 with the introduction of six separate juries for the different categories of competitions, leading to elite handpicked juries with domain expertise in each category deliberating on entries and choosing the winners. We realise that an award show is only as good as its jury and are leaving no stone unturned to ensure that the jury chairs are respected professionals who inspire the industry. We will also be very careful in our choice of jurors, picked in consultation with the jury chairs.”
Kavitha Srinivasan, Secretary of Advertising Club Madras, added, “At the heart of every great award are the experts who decide what’s best. We’re honoured to have Agnello Dias, Preeti Vyas, and RamSam, Ashish Khazanchi, Anisha Iyer and Sabyasachi Mitter lead our juries, bringing their expertise and insight into the 44th MADDYS. Their involvement underscores our commitment to recognizing the best in Indian advertising.”
The awards are open to entries from India and abroad. While most categories are language-agnostic, the Regional Pride (Tamil) MADDYS category will remain exclusive to Tamil advertising.
Early bird entries will close on March 18, 2026, with the final entry deadline set for May 10, 2026, and the awards gala scheduled to take place in July 2026. Entries must have been first released during FY 2025–26 (April 1, 2025 to March 31, 2026) to qualify.
