Alyque Padamsee was born in 1931 to a Gujarati family in Mumbai. He, along with his seven siblings, studied at Miss Murphy’s School, a boarding school where he claims he learnt all that made him the man he is, including the English language. He went on the study at Cathedral School and St. Xavier’s College. During his childhood years, his eldest brother Sultan initiated him into the world of theatre by staging performances on the terrace of their house. After his studies, Padamsee entered the advertising industry and struggled for ten years on a tight budget. However, success awaited him and Padamsee earned himself great acclaim in the industry. He went on to become the CEO of Lintas, serving in the position for 14 years, spearheading numerous highly successful campaigns for brands including Liril, Cherry Blossom Shoe Polish, Kamasutra and, Lux. Padamsee ended his stint with the company as their regional coordinator for South Asia, before moving on and eventually starting his own company, AP Advertising Pvt. Ltd. His success in the business has led him to be referred to as the ‘Brand Father of Indian Advertising’ and the ‘Ad Guru of India’, and he has held several prestigious official positions including those of Advisor to Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on Commercial Television, Communications Advisor to Chandrababu Naidu - Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, and, Chairman of London Institute of Corporate Training. He has held several board memberships and advisory council positions on institutions of educational, industrial and political importance including the Prime Minister’s AIDS Task Force.

Interestingly, this advertising career though which Padamsee reached such great heights was one he stumbled upon almost by accident. When his mother asked him to leave the house because of his intention to marry Pearl Padamsee, whom she did not approve of, he joined an advertising company on a salary of 300 rupees a month so he could make a living on his own and support his new family. Through all of this, theatre remained not just a passion but also a parallel career for Padamsee. They went on to separate, and he is currently married to Sharon Prabhakar, who is also a reputed theatre artist. Their daughter, Shazahn Padamsee, is also a film actress.

He began his work in theatre at the start of his career, and over the years, became known for his productions of iconic works like Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar and A Streetcar Named Desire. In the early 1980s, Padamsee began working on the concept for a film adaptation of him production Tughlaq, but the project fell through when Amitabh Bachchan backed out of the lead role due to health and personal reasons after a serious accident on the sets of Coolie (1983). Following this, Padamsee acted in a defining role as Mohammad Ali Jinnah in Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi (1982). Though the role won him great acclaim and recognition as an actor, it dampened his ambitions of making a movie as he felt the making of a film was more technicality-based than he enjoyed.

In 1999, Padamsee published an autobiography explicating his experiences and insights into the two worlds of advertising and theatre. He continues his work in both, and has come to be a defining figure for both professions in the Indian context. He was honoured with the Padmashri by the Government of India in 2000, acknowledging his contribution to these two fields.