The awards ceremony that was organised by the Patrika Group, was held on 16 September in Mumbai and was attended by professionals from the media and corporate sector. The awards received more than 3000 Indian entries and 85 international entries from 18 countries.
In addition to Sukla, Shivil Gupta of Interface Communications and O&M won the Unicef Special Mention trophies. Gupta was awarded for his 'Bijli' campaign, while O&M was awarded for their 'Save Trees' campaign.
Lalindra Nanayakkara was declared as the International Winner for his entry campaign ‘He wants to be a Student’.
The winners of the 12 excellence awards are Mehul Prajapati from Creativeland Asia, Mahesh Gharat from O & M, Shantanu Suman from Publicis Ambience and Raj Shekhar from Purple Zebra Ideas, Vipin Baria from O & M, Dheeraj Arora from Crayons, Savio Alva from JWT, Raju Sarmalkar from JWT, Sandeep Sinnarkar from Lowe Lintas, Rajdeep Goswami from Contract Advertising, Imran Ur Rehman from Delhi and Ankur Garg from JWT.
Commenting about the occasion, Gulab Kothari, managing director, Patrika Group said, "We are the only newspaper that reach out to the heart of people and raise a voice for their cause. We feel the pain of the people and the land. That is the reason we have been able to make a place in the hearts of the millions. This is a newspaper where every single word makes an impact.”
The awards night also comprised a group discussion, that discussed which social evil needs to be addressed on priority in India. The panel discussion included Josy Paul, Bharat Dabholkar, Lynn de Souza and Madhukar Kamath.
Pictured left to right: Ajeet Sukla's colleague, Harvinder Singh from Percept, Gulab Kothari, Shekhar Swamy of RK Swamy BBDO and Ajeet Sukla)