A man of many talents - Alyque Padamsee is also known as the Ad Guru of India. He is responsible for revolutionizing the advertising scene of India. However, since drama was always his passion, he has a long and fruitful association with the stage, both English and Marathi. Padamsee revealed that Ayn Rand has had an influential role in his life, and that after Shakespeare, he considers Rand`s works to be his favorite. He particularly enjoyed the romanticism of The Fountainhead.
He is one of few people, who has been involved in different communication streams at the same time, yet has succeeded in excelling in all of them. This legendary theater personality has also played Muhammad Ali Jinnah in the film Gandhi. A creator of many memorable projects in the arena of theatre and advertising, he started his stage performances, while he was very young. Later on, he kept diversifying his talents into different related fields as he stepped from his teens to young adulthood.
As a stage director, Alyque Padamsee has created legends such as `Evita`, which launched the stage career of Sharon Prabhakar; `Tughlaq`, which flagged off the career of the internationally known actor Kabir Bedi, `A Streetcar named Desire`, which made stars of Dalip Tahil and Sabira Merchant and `Kabaret`, which brought Shiamak Davar to fame. Besides these productions, Alyque Padamsee has acted and directed numerous stage productions that have won worldwide acclaim. On television, he can be given the credit of introducing the serial and introducing "Karamchand", who yet remains the unforgettable character on the television screen. He has been conferred the Lifetime Achievement award by the Sangeet Natak Academy.
Even as an advertising genius, Alyque has many successful advertisement campaigns to his credit, which have now gone to become great brands. Some of them include Liril, MRF, Timex, Monte carlo, Kitply and Kamasutra. However, his most memorable character is of Lalitaji (Surf), who became a household name, due to the creativity of this Communications Guru of India. He is also the only Indian to be voted into the international Cleo Hall of Fame- the Oscars of the World of Advertising. He even has been conferred the title of "Padmashree" for his contribution to the field of advertising. He has to his credit several international awards. In 1999, he has also published his autobiography `A Double Life` which is now a best seller.
