Portfolio Night 2026 Closes Its Fifth Indian Edition With Two Winners
Portfolio Night 2026 has closed its fifth Indian edition, with The One Club for Creativity and Omnicom Advertising India naming two winners: Aadya Adukia from the Mumbai in-person edition and Aaradhya Gandhre from the pan-India virtual one.
- Organisers: The One Club for Creativity, in partnership with Omnicom Advertising India
- Winners: Aadya Adukia, Mumbai in-person edition; Aaradhya Gandhre, pan-India virtual edition
- Edition: the fifth in India
- Panel: thirty-three creative leaders across in-person and virtual sessions
What Portfolio Night 2026 Winners Go On To
Both winners advance to Portfolio Night All-Stars, a week-long virtual programme that puts winners from each market into teams and sets them a creative brief for a major global brand. The One Club flies the final winning team to New York for a week of events and networking.
That structure is the part worth noting. A portfolio review that ends in feedback is useful. One that ends in a brief, a team of strangers from other markets and a flight is a different proposition, because it asks the winner to do the job rather than describe it.
The Format Is Blunter Than Most
Participants presented portfolios and took one-on-one feedback from senior creative leaders. There is no stage, no shortlist and no audience, which removes most of what makes an industry evening comfortable for the person being reviewed.
Josy Paul, Chairman and Group Chief Creative Officer at BBDO Group India, said the work was brave and personal, and that talent may open the door but it is love that takes a person forward, love for the idea, the craft and the people you make it with.
Rahul Mathew, Chief Creative Officer at McCann India, put the exchange the other way round. The industry usually frames the evening as mentoring, Mathew said, but sitting across from young creatives who have not yet learned what cannot be done is a reset for people who have been at it for years.
Russell Barrett, Chief Creative Experience Officer at TBWA\Lintas, said the evening gives emerging creatives an honest conversation with no gatekeeping and no shortcuts, and that some of this year's portfolios were genuinely exceptional.
Who Sat On The Other Side Of The Table
The panel ran to thirty-three names across both formats, drawn from BBDO Group India, McCann India, TBWA\Lintas, Ogilvy, Leo India, Saatchi and Saatchi India, Havas India, Wondrlab India, Monks India, Garage Worldwide, Tilt Brand Solutions, BBH India, Kinnect, Talented, 22feet, Enormous Brands, Sideways Consulting, TGTHR, Open Strategy and Design, Sharpener Design Studio and ZeroFifty Mediaworks.
That spread is the actual product. A young creative with no network gets, in one evening, the attention of chief creative officers from most of the holding companies operating in the country, and a reading of the book that is not filtered through whoever happens to be hiring.
Portfolio Night runs globally under The One Club for Creativity. More industry news on Ad Tribe.