Alyque Padamsee - Indian adman

Alyque Padamsee is sitting down to talk. Hands flying, face animated, words, brilliant words at that, pouring out in a stream. The man who gave both Indian advertisement and English theatre in Mumbai its distinct cutting-edge may be on the "wrong side of 60", but that doesn't matter. Not to the people who turn up at his seminars; not to his MNC and chief ministerial clients; not to theatre buffs. And certainly not to him.

Padamsee retains that awesome ability to do all things at all times. "It is not a question of time, it is a question of energy. I'm busier than ever after my 'retirement'. I have just one wish. To have 25 hours in a day. Twenty-four is just not enough," he says.

In Dubai recently to judge the International Advertisement Association Awards – he was impressed with many of the entries – he plans to come back for a series of advertisement and communications workshops. "I love Dubai after Mumbai and New York. The body of Dubai; the mind of Mumbai; the civic amenities of Dubai; the mental liveliness of Mumbai: That is my ideal city," he defines. Able to communicate, effectively, his love of both metropolises.

"Effective communication is to be able to give you, dramatically, the message. I believe in KISS, 'keep it short and singleminded'. I also believe it must impact the emotional retina and not crash the mind with information overload," he underscores.

Padamsee certainly knows how to impact the emotional retina. His public service television campaigns against AIDS and leprosy not only educate and reassure, but also shock and startle.

Making the viewer realise that the disease is not a curse but a condition and it is the sickness, not the patient, which should be fought.

Indians – and those who watch Indian television, satellite or national, or read Indian publications – are familiar with Padamsee's campaigns. He has built brands such as Liril, Dalda, Bajaj, Park Avenue, Captain Cook, Surf, Cherry Blossom, Jet Airways, Closeup toothpaste, Timex watches, Monte Carlo, Reynolds pens, Kitply Plywood – consumer durables and non-durables; mass and elitist products. His first creative, he remembers, was MRF – the tyre with muscle.

As chief executive he built Lintas India as one of India's top advertisement agencies and now is the president of A.P. Associates, image and marketing consultants. Currently he is working with Chandrababu Naidu, the techno-savvy chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, helping him motivate his bureaucracy.

Padamsee takes effective communication a step further through his theatre. Musicals and plays such as Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar, Tughlaq and Begum Sumroo have left their mark on urban Indian consciousness. A skilled actor, he played a remarkable Mohammed Ali Jinnah in Richard Attenborough's Gandhi.

"I had met Richard Attenborough at a party and he rang me the next day. 'Would you like to play Jinnah in my Gandhi?' he asked me. 'Would you like a screen test?' I asked him. 'No,' he said, 'I have a sixth sense about these things. You have an autocratic air about you; that's what I want from my Jinnah'. So I was Jinnah," he remembers. He has the monocle he used with devastating impact in the film and this he intends to leave with his son as an heirloom.

Acting, public speaking and advertisement/awareness campaigns exercise Padamsee's creativity and compassion to the fullest. He remembers an incident that made him change the way he looked at life. "I shooed away a disabled beggar child at a traffic signal. I saw her go back to her friends and laugh at the way I had waved my hands. This, for me, was a revealing moment. She was not sorry for herself and her friends treated her as absolutely normal. She was not a cripple, I was crippling her with my pity."

Out of this awareness sprang one of Padamsee's most memorable campaigns. A little child drawing on a slate