MUMBAI: They came, they played, they cleaned house armed with satire, nostalgia, and a killer instinct for viral storytelling. In a blockbuster awards season, Kerala’s very own Maitri is rewriting the rules of regional creativity, bagging a shower of accolades at the Kyoorius Creative Awards and the Abbys 2025. The independent agency, headquartered far from the metros that usually dominate India’s creative scene, is now firmly in the national spotlight.
“We’ve always believed that there’s plenty of creativity in Kerala,” said Maitri managing director Raju Menon. “These wins affirm that you don’t have to leave home for the world to see your work.”
And see it, they did. Maitri’s headline-grabbing campaign for Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI), a tongue-in-cheek scam ad that exposed scam ads snagged three Kyoorius metals in Topical Film, Social Media Engagement, and Film Craft (Produced Under Rs 10 Lakh). The same campaign added two Silver Abbys to its trophy shelf in Digital – online only video (30s to 60s) and Digital Craft – creative use of video.
The kicker? It competed against high-budget campaigns from national giants and still stood out with originality and wit.
Also racking up wins was Sandhesham, a Malayalee-nostalgia-laced BGMI film that struck gold in Kerala and went viral worldwide despite being in a language spoken by just 0.4 per cent of the global population. The result: two Blue Elephants at Kyoorius in Regional Film and Regional Digital and Social Media.
On the Valentine’s Day front, Maitri flipped the script with Villantine’s Day, a villain-themed campaign for Asianet that blended nostalgia with pop-culture quirk. It earned a Blue Elephant and a lot of love from Malayalam-speaking social media.
“Whether it was the satire in Thokkummoottil, the nostalgia of Sandhesham, or the humorous twist of Villantine’s Day, we tried to make each idea feel like it was born here but built to travel,” said Maitri Group creative director Francis Thomas.
“The question we always ask ourselves is this something I’d send my friends?” added Maitri Group creative director Vincent Vadakkan.
With a Baby Elephant and multiple shortlists, including under Young Maverick, Maitri’s momentum isn’t just a flash in the creative pan, it’s a marker of what’s to come.
As Maitri director of digital & overseas business Sumit Raj summed up, “The best work comes from a place of mutual trust and respect, and we’re lucky we have that with our clients.”
Maitri’s rise is not just a win for one agency, it’s a moment for the South, signalling that India’s creative future may well have a coconut tree in the frame and a cheeky, sharp script behind the camera.
Kerala’s no longer just watching from the sidelines. It’s centre stage script in hand, mic turned up, and trophies in tow.
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