Gitanjali Lifestyle, the luxury retail arm of Gitanjali Group announced the launch of the largest luxury jewellery store in India. The showroom has been named Giantti and is Gitanjali’s latest and one of its most promising ventures. The 10,000 square feet showroom at Mumbai’ Atria mall with its state-of-the-art design and the presence of the international brands has just added more glitter to the city.

The newly launched jewellery boutique offers high-end jewellery, watches and accessories. Stefan Hafner, La Nouvelle Bague, Roberta Poratti, Damiani, Staurino, Alfred, Bliss Tesoro, Greggio, Rosato, Calgaro are some of the brands featured at Giantti. Indian brands like Parineeta, Nakshatra eternity, World of Solitaire and World of pearls will also share the retail space along with the international brands.

Giantti aims to cater to the high end customers of Gitanjali by offering them brands which are synonymous with luxury and style.

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures recently announced Seshasaye Kanthamraju as the Director (Marketing and Distribution) of its Indian operations. Kanthamraju has previously served as a Director for Corporate Communications at Walt Disney, India.

Walt Disney Studio officials stated that Kanthamraju will be responsible for overall marketing and distribution strategy for the theatrical slate and will be working closely with UTV Motion Pictures on the film distribution.

Mahesh Samat, Walt Disney India, Senior VP and MD said “Seshasaye has been with Disney for last five years. He has a passion for the brand and has proven business acumen and we are very confident that his contribution will further strengthen the reach and relevance of our Studios business in India.”

MediaCom India has announced Ashwini Kamat as the new GM of MediaCom, Mumbai. She will also be responsible for strategic communication planning, research, insights functions across all MediaCom clients.

Divya Gururaj, MD, MediaCom India confirmed the news and also added, “Ashwini is one of the brightest people in the media industry and I am delighted to have her on our team. With her leadership, we will continue to strengthen our ROI based planning, which has been a key focus and strength.”

Kamat is an MBA from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Mgmt and has over 12 years of experience in the advertising industry. She has worked on diverse categories like retail, soap, skincare, automobiles, insurance and liquor.

Regarding her association with MediaCom, Kamat said, “What attracted me to MediaCom was their focus on people – clients, employees and media owners. I look forward to leading the team to deliver a strong strategic product, healthy growth and delighting clients.”

Vijaya Sriram has been appointed as vice-president of Bates 141. She will replace Vijay Jacob and join the Chennai office. Sriram will be in charge of business development and operations of the firm’s Chennai agency which handles high profile clients like CavinKare and Apollo. Prior to this, Sriram was working with Dentsu Communications. Sriram has an industry experience of over 18 years.

Sriram has worked renowned ad agencies like Lowe Lintas, R K Swamy BBDO and JWT an has handled accounts like Brooke Bond Lipton, MRF, Proctor & Gamble, Apollo Hospitals and Henkel Detergents.

About her new association, Sriram said, “Bates 141 is a prominent brand in the world of advertising. I look forward towards giving my best in taking the mandate forward.”

Sandeep Pathak, chief executive officer, Bates 141, also added, “We are looking at exponential growth of our Chennai business. Vijaya’s diverse experience and expertise in handling reputed brands across categories will go a long way in strengthening our business objective.”

Two months ago, Religare Enterprises had invited various agencies to pitch for the creative duties of their financial services. After a rigorous and a long pitching process, the account has finally been won by Ogilvy, Mumbai. The other agencies in the league were JWT, McCann Erickson, TBWA, Capital Advertising and Law & Kenneth.

Subhrangshu Neogi, Director — brand and corporate communications, Religare Enterprises Limited justified that Ogilvy won the creative duties because the company was looking for an accomplished ad firm which had the resources to look after the full suite of the company’s products and services.

Ogilvy was managing Religare’s mutual funds business from June and now will be taking care of the financial services as well. It will also be responsible for Religare Voyages, Religare Aircharter and Religare Technova.

Sanjay Thapar, group president — North and East, Ogilvy India was confident that that the firm will take Religare to the next level, and help establish the brand in the international market.

Monjit Sharma, Director of Sales at MTV has quit and moved on to NewsX as Head of Sales. Sharma would be heading regional sales teams of Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore from the company’s Delhi office.

In his career, Sharma has worked with Asian Age, ESPN-Star Sports and also looked after the revenue duties for CNBC-TV 18 and CNBC Awaaz.

Sharma said, “It’s a privilege to take on this role and work with NewsX. The team here has turned the channel into a home for refreshingly different content in a cluttered news space. The channel is undergoing very positive changes and it will be exciting to be part of this process.”

NewsX’s officials confirmed the news and also added, “Monjit comes with a wide experience of handling sales functions at some of the biggest media brands in the country. He brings with him a rich mix of working on both established brands and start-up environments. We are pleased to have him on board.”

Hrithik Roshan has been signed by Provogue as the brand ambassador for its latest campaign. The campaign “Be the Change” is a print oriented campaign which will highlight the winter collection of the brand.

Sameer Makani, Managing Director, Makani Creatives which handles the creative duties for Provogue, elaborated on the campaign saying, “It is going to be a print-oriented campaign positioned around the attitude — ‘Be The Change'”, where each letter in the word ‘change’ stands for a particular value — courage, hope, attitude, next, glory and edge, respectively.

Hrithik has replaced Saif Ali Khan, who was earlier endorsing the brand. Provogue follows the policy of roping in fresh faces for their brand every three years. Earlier Fardeen Khan and John Abraham have also been associated with the brand.

Nikhil Chaturvedi, managing director, Provogue said, “Provogue stands for quality, innovation and style and Hrithik Roshan’s personality epitomises the brand’s ideology of fashion.”

Roshan also expressed happiness to be associated with the brand saying, “It is a pleasure to lend yourself to a brand that makes its presence felt. I tend to endorse brands selectively as I need to relate to the brand and believe in it.”

The Advertising Agencies Association of India has announced Sam Balsara, Chairman & Managing Director, Madison World as its recipient for its Lifetime Achievement Award-2009.The award will be presented to him on November 13 in Mumbai. The award is presented annually and recognizes the individual’s contribution towards the advertising agency.

Madhukar Kamath, President, AAAI and MD & CEO, Mudra Group along with the announcement also added, “Sam Balsara is an extremely respected professional and an acknowledged leader in the Industry today. With over 35 years of experience in the industry, Sam is a powerhouse of energy, ideas, enthusiasm and more importantly, humility.”

He further said, “Apart from growing Madison into one of India’s most reputed home-grown, diversified communications group in a short span of two decades, Sam has made immense contribution to the Indian advertising industry with his enthusiastic and selfless participation in the agenda of the AAAI, ASCI, IAA, Advertising Club, etc. He has been in the forefront of championing industry issues, be it with the Government, or the media fraternity, apart from working spiritedly to get various bodies like IBF, INS, ISA, etc., on to a common platform. He is indeed an inspiration to us all and a most deserving recipient of this award. By bestowing this honour on Sam, we salute his contribution to the Indian advertising industry.”