Prakash Varma, Ramesh Iyengar on Goafest 2010 jury

Goafest has appointed Prakash Varma as the jury chairman – Film Craft category for the Creative Abby awards at Goafest 2010. The Film Craft category is exclusively for film producers and directors of ad films.

As a director with Nirvana Films, Varma made his mark with films for Vodafone, Tata Indicom, Virgin Mobile, Titan, DTC Nakshatra among others. Nirvana had won a Silver Lion at Cannes, for Neo Sports 'Gas' TVC in 2008 as well as the London International Awards for the same film.

Commenting on his appointment, Ajay Chandwani, director, Percept and chairman - Creative Abbys of Goafest 2010 said, "Prakash Varma and Nirvana have made a huge impact on the quality of ad films with their work. Apart from winning a Grand Prix at Goafest in the past, Nirvana has also won at Cannes in the difficult film category. Prakash combines the unique knack of storytelling that appeals to consumers and juries equally. It is a pleasure to have Prakash head the distinguished jury of ad film producers and directors in Film Craft at Goafest this year."

Meanwhile, Ramesh Iyengar has been appointed as the jury chairperson – Direct category for the Creative Abby awards at Goafest 2010.

Chandwani commented on Iyengar's appointment saying, "Ramesh has been one of the pioneers of direct marketing and among the first people to shift from mainstream advertising to direct and brings with him rich specialized experience in the field. He has had extensive experience as a jury member, which includes the jury at Cannes Lions Awards for Direct Marketing in 2004 and 2005; chairman of Direct jury at Abbys in 2006; chairman-Direct at Goafest Creative Abbys in 2008 and chairman of Jury for The Loerie Awards, South Africa for experiential marketing. We are delighted to have him chair the Direct Jury at Goafest this year."

Iyengar founded Select Direct Marketing in 1991, an independent direct marketing agency in India. He started out in advertising 28 years ago at Lintas India and later worked at Trikaya for eight years. He had set up Trikaya Grey Direct in 1989. He is a founder member of ICDM (The Indian Confederation of Direct Marketing) of which he is the honorary secretary.