The culturally rooted campaign celebrating India’s distinctive English continues its award-winning run across global creative platforms.
Air India Express has brought home one of the region’s highest creative honours, winning a Grand Prix and two Silvers at the Spikes Asia Awards 2026 for its culturally iconic ‘Inglish Dictionary’ campaign, created in partnership with Juice (an Omnicom Group Company, and a division of TBWA).
Recognised as the Asia-Pacific counterpart of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Spikes Asia celebrates transformative creativity that shapes culture and pushes boundaries. This makes the wins even more meaningful for a campaign rooted deeply in India’s linguistic identity.
A playful yet profound tribute to the vibrant, ever-evolving English spoken across the subcontinent, the Inglish Dictionary reimagines local expressions that have become staples of India’s everyday conversations. With its witty definitions and visually stunning Sohrai-inspired design language, the Inglish Dictionary struck a chord across demographics, garnering over 25 million downloads and digital impressions within months of being launched.
The work continues its global momentum after making waves at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2025, where it competed across categories such as Social Behaviour, Culture Engagement, Publication & Editorial Design, Books, Illustration, Copywriting and Art Direction.
The recognition at Spikes Asia adds to the campaign’s growing list of global creative honours. The work previously won two Baby Elephants and one Blue Elephant at the Kyoorius Design Awards 2025, and a Gold for Copywriting and three Bronze Awards for Illustration Design, Writing for Design and Art Direction at The Drum Awards 2025. It has also been recognised by The One Club for Creativity (ONE Asia) 2025.
Together, these recognitions reinforce Air India Express’ positioning as India’s most culturally engaged airline, celebrating authenticity, individuality, and the many ways India expresses itself.
On the concept and success of the campaign, Siddhartha Butalia, Chief Marketing Officer, Air India Express, said, “The Inglish Dictionary is a cultural project curated as an extension of our brand proposition – celebrating diversity and inclusivity while reinforcing the spirit of exploration intrinsic to travel. The creative rendition incorporates indigenous art to bring to life the quirks of local linguistics. That it has captured the imagination of so many, reaffirms the belief that a distinctive expression of identity is a powerful differentiator juxtaposed against the mundaneness of conformity and prescriptive protocol.”
Reflecting on the creative journey, Russell Barrett, Chief Creative Experience Officer,Juice (an Omnicom Group Company, and a division of TBWA) said, “The response to the Inglish Dictionary has been overwhelming and deeply affirming. It proves that when a brand speaks the language of its audience, the message resonates far more powerfully. The idea was to create something personal, playful, and instantly familiar, bringing people across the country together through a shared way of speaking.”
Over the years, a multitude of Indian words have found their way into English dictionaries. They can be found lounging in their ‘pyjamas’ on ‘verandas’ of ‘bungalows’, sipping fruit ‘punch’ while chomping down a ‘chutney’ sandwich. But the Inglish dictionary is about the words that we have made distinctly ours. The kind that captures not just how we speak but how we think and live. Like “biscoot”, Biscuit’s chaotic desi cousin that disintegrates into a hot cup of tea when you least expect it or “one-by-two”, our ingenious way of sharing food at restaurants to magically split one dish and turn it into two. There’s “Foreign Return”, our label for non-resident Indians who return to the country, and “time pass” – anything done just to kill time. This dictionary is a guide to the nuances of the language spoken by the second-largest English-speaking nation in the world, transforming familiar words and phrases into a celebration of identity, humour and heritage.
Printed as a limited-edition hardback collectible, the digital version of the Inglish Dictionary is available free on www.airindiaexpress.com/inglish-dictionary, inviting all Indians, international travellers, diaspora and Indophiles – to rediscover language, not as a tool of precision, but as an expression of play, people, and pride.
