British film director of Indian origin, Gurinder Chadha, was among the speakers at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2025.

In a conversation with Manifest, she revealed that ‘some of the Indian ads from the country’ are superb in terms of the use of humour, but added that if one is looking to empower women through advertising, that needs to change.

“If your job is to empower women, let me come in and direct some commercials. One has to do it with a sense of humour. One has to understand the culture and the power of advertising,” she said.

She added that Indian advertising is different to other countries because of its great film culture.

“In Britain, people have grown up watching television, so the ad culture is based on that. Because of cinema, India has a different sense of scale. Storytelling always requires plot twists. I have seen great Indian commercials that do that,” she said.

Chadha added that women directors bring in a different focus, even while directing men.

“I always find it interesting how I direct male characters differently from how a man directs a man. If one has to change society and its norms using advertising, one has to look at different methods of doing the same,” she explained.

Catch our full conversation with Chadha in the July issue. Buy the copy here.