Mumbai: McCann India, part of Omnicom Advertising India, has announced Vinod Ravi, an independent director, as the winner of the inaugural edition of Fresh Take 2026, its talent initiative launched in collaboration with D&AD and Mothership Productions to identify and nurture the next generation of advertising filmmakers in India.
As the overall winner, Ravi will receive a sponsored trip to the D&AD Festival 2027 and will be commissioned for two commercial projects with McCann India, providing an opportunity to work on live client assignments.
Atul Pathak, a director, and Disha Daswani, an independent director, were named runners-up. Both will receive complimentary access to D&AD’s online masterclass programme, ‘Storytelling for Action’. The remaining shortlisted finalists included Raag Sapra, Gaurav Joshi and Victor Pillai.
The inaugural edition attracted more than 90 entries from ad film directors across the country following an open call for submissions. Entries were evaluated by a jury comprising leading professionals from advertising, filmmaking and production, with submissions assessed on storytelling, originality, creative vision and execution.
The awards were presented during a ceremony held on August 7 at Omnicom House, Mumbai, where the six shortlisted films were showcased before industry leaders, production houses and creative professionals.
Vinod Ravi, Winner, Fresh Take 2026, said, “Recognition like this reminds us that craft should be at the core of everything we do. There is a small wave of very interesting work in commercial art amidst the industry chaos and I want to keep that wave going with my collaborators.”
Rahul Mathew, Chief Creative Officer, McCann India, said, “As an industry it’s important for us to keep discovering, protecting and encouraging new talent. It’s what keeps us and our work fresh. Fresh Take is a step by us in that direction. It’s our first year and we hope that by doing this year on year we’re able to help build a strong roster of next generation filmmakers. We’ll soon be sharing the details of the six shortlisted directors with agencies and production houses across the industry, so that more people can discover their work, and hopefully, they have more opportunities to get their work out there.”
Kashif Memon, Founder & Executive Producer, Mothership Productions, said, “Apart from seeing some of the work we have produced through Mothership Productions with some of the young directors that had entered their work for Fresh Take, I for one was pleasantly surprised to see a lot of work that I hadn’t before. And in the process of which I got exposed to a whole new pool of fresh talent. I’d imagine that is the beauty of this initiative. What’s doubly great is that the winner goes to D&AD but even the participants that got shortlisted will definitely get noticed and hopefully get commissioned work.”
Donal Keenan, Chief Commercial & Operations Officer, D&AD, added, “Congratulations to all those who took part in Fresh Take this year and huge congratulations to the winner for such an achievement. We at D&AD look forward to welcoming them to the festival next year and wish them all the best on the exciting journey ahead for them.”
Fresh Take has been conceived as a long-term platform to connect emerging directors with the advertising industry by offering visibility, mentorship and opportunities to work on commercial briefs. McCann India said it plans to continue the initiative annually, creating a stronger pipeline of filmmaking talent for agencies and production houses across the country.
The jury for the first edition featured Akanksha Seda (Good Morning Films), Anand Menon (Early Man Film), Ashish Khazanchi (Enormous), Kashif Memon (Mothership Productions), Rahul Mathew (McCann India), Shirsha Guha Thakurta (Oink Films), Sukesh Nayak (Ogilvy) and Vikram Pandey (Leo India), alongside producers and founders from leading creative and production companies.
