life in black, white and grey
Subbaraju Alluri is CEO of Grey Group Singapore and Thailand. He started his career in his native India and worked for Grey in Indonesia before moving to Singapore some 10 years ago. Winner of the Agency Head of the Year 2014 and Agency Professional of the Year 2011 at the Singapore Advertising Hall of Fame Awards by the Institute of Advertising, Singapore, he is equally pleased with his staff’s unofficial award of minister of fun.
I was a model for four years, during my college days and at the start of my career in India. It was fun and I learned quite a bit about fashion. It was through modelling that I got into advertising – I went into an agency to pick up my pay cheque one day and was fascinated by what was going on.
I do the whole corporate bit of dressing from Monday to Thursday then on Friday it’s chic, casual dressing. Most of my corporate dressing is Hugo Boss and Uomo Collezioni. For casual wear I often go to Banana Republic or Massimo Dutti. I prefer to shop alone as I know what I want.
I enjoy photography – anything to do with nature or people. I like to take action or candid shots. I have a Canon 5D, which suits my kind of photography, although it’s a bit big. I always take it on family holidays, but use my iPhone 6 if I’m travelling on business. Work led me into photography. If you don’t observe, you don’t know what’s going on.
I am interested in South East Asian art – from Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand, particularly. I think they have fantastic artists who are not well-known. In the villages there is some very nice art, so I buy from there.
If I’m entertaining clients, I often go to Cut by Wolfgang Puck at Marina Bay Sands. The service and atmosphere are great – as are the steaks. My clients love it. My favourite restaurant overseas is Basil at Sheraton Grande Sukhumvit in Bangkok for authentic Thai food. At home, my wife, son and daughter enjoy a variety of food – Indonesian and Italian as well as Indian. And we love Chinese and go to Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao in Great World City about twice a month.
I am a BMW fan and BMW is one of our clients. Every three years we change cars, but I always go for the same model and the same colour – black.
Subbaraju Alluri
Area Director and CEO, Grey Group Singapore and Grey Group Thailand
Indian native Alluri was exposed to the world of advertising when he first modelled as a teenager. Today, he resides in Singapore with his wife and children, and oversees both Grey Group Singapore and Thailand.
