Creative studio Nice Shoes has hired creative director Ninaad Kulkarni as part of its growing experiential division. A 3D artist, immersive storyteller and animation filmmaker with a background in traditional and 3D animation, Kulkarni was selected in 2019 as part of the Forbes “30 Under 30” India class. He comes to NYC-based Nice Shoes having worked with Audi, among other leading brands.

Kulkarni established himself as a nontraditional filmmaker to watch following the success of his thesis short film KCLOC. This artful visual exploration of the concept of time was showcased at MoMA, winning the prestigious Red-Dot Award, Society of Motion Pictures and Television Engineers Award and the AT&T Film Award, as well as being selected for screening at over 130 international film festivals. His most recent project, a collaborative virtual reality film The Other Side VR, is the first-ever immersive experience based on the Partition of India, which fuses woodcut--a traditional printmaking technique--and 3D animation. He’s currently working to expand the experience, adding more stories and interviews as well as launching it to a wider audience. 

Kulkarni studied at the National Institute of Design, India and earned his M.F.A. in Computer Art from the School of Visual Arts in New York.