Mumbai, August 13, 2026: McCann India, part of Omnicom Advertising India, has announced the winners of Fresh Take 2026, its talent platform created in partnership with D&AD and Mothership Productions to discover, celebrate and accelerate the careers of emerging ad film directors in India.
Vinod Ravi, an independent Director, has been named the winner of Fresh Take 2026. He will receive a paid trip to the D&AD Festival 2027 and will be commissioned for two projects with McCann India, providing an opportunity to take their craft to live commercial briefs.
Atul Pathak, a Director and Disha Daswani, an independent Director, have been named the two runners-up. They will receive complimentary access to D&AD’s online masterclass programme ‘Storytelling for Action’. The other shortlisted directors were Raag Sapra, Gaurav Joshi and Victor Pillai.
In its inaugural edition, following an open call for entries, Fresh Take 2026 received 90+ entries. The entries were evaluated by a jury panel comprising leading voices from advertising, filmmaking and production, with work assessed on storytelling, originality, craft and creative vision. The evening featured a showcase of the top six shortlisted submissions, offering a closer look at the range of storytelling styles and creative perspectives.
Buoyed by his win, Vinod Ravi, 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.”
Speaking about Fresh Take 2026, 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 film makers. 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.”
The winners were announced at a gathering on 7 August, 2026 at the Omnicom House, Mumbai. Fresh Take 2026 saw participation from ad film directors; Fresh Take jurors including 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), Vikram Pandey (Leo India); and other producers and founders from leading production houses and agencies.
