I got diagnosed with young Parkinson’s. It feels great to be called young again: Amit Akali

New Delhi: Amit Akali has always trusted in the power of words. Over the years, his lines have made the advertising world sit up, laugh or cry. His work has won global recognition, most memorably ‘The Last Laugh’ for the Indian Association of Palliative Care, created at Medulla Communications, where humour was used to stare mortality straight in the eye.

Now, Akali is writing lines again, but this time they are about himself. They are as witty as they are heartbreaking. “I got diagnosed with Young Parkinson’s. It feels great to be called young again.” Or, “I should have seen Parkinson’s coming. After all, I’ve always been a mover and shaker.”

These are not client briefs. They are Akali’s own way of confronting Parkinson’s, turning the language of advertising into a personal survival mechanism. 

At 50, the Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Wondrlab has moved into a mentorship role, stepping back from daily leadership to focus fully on his health.

Wondrlab, which acquired his agency What’s Your Problem in 2020 and made him a co-founder, has now appointed Hemant Shringy as Chief Creative Officer and Managing Partner.

For some, this might seem like a cruel twist of fate. For Akali, who once urged the world to “Laugh at Death”, is now using the same craft to make peace with a disease that has quietly rewritten his own story.

Sharing how it all began, Akali said that it started with pain. At first, doctors thought it was osteoporosis. Then came the suspicion of ankylosing spondylitis, a condition his father had. But medication did little. He grew slower and more unsteady. There was shivering. Scans and a visit to a neurologist finally gave it a name: Young Parkinson’s.

Parkinson’s, as he explained it, isn’t fatal. “But it affects the motor skills completely. The body stops producing dopamine or produces less than needed. Dopamine is released in the brain for any movement, be it eating, speaking, shaking hands, or writing. Without it, everything gets affected.”

Treatment began with dopamine supplements. “Most people get dopamine when they’re happy: from food, sex, and laughter. I get it from popping a pill,” Akali laughed. 

But medicine wasn’t enough. Therapies became part of his new life, which now includes physiotherapy, speech therapy, walking and gymming. “The body needs flexibility. It has to be worked on in a very focused way.”

The real turning point came when he was hospitalised for an infection. “I decided then I don’t want to land in a hospital again. It wasn’t fair to my wife and kids to watch me go through that. I had to focus on my health.”

He also realised how vicious the cycle was: any illness worsened Parkinson’s, and Parkinson’s made recovery slower. “I had to break the cycle.”

Once discharged, he spoke to his Wondrlab partners, Saurabh Varma and Rakesh Hinduja (Founders at Wondrlab). “Of course, there was shock. But health had to come first.” They began planning a transition. By March–April 2025, Akali had told them he needed to step back.

Stepping back from his “baby” (What’s Your Problem, which was acquired by Wondrlab) was not easy. But the timing aligned with the company’s scale-up plans. “We are already 500-people company. Luckily, Hemant Shringy joined as CCO. He was part of my great team in the past. He’s amazing, talented, insightful, and unlike me, actually young.”

For Akali, Wondrlab’s trajectory gives comfort. “We’ve built something global. Acquiring agencies in Poland and Europe, creating tech products like Hector. People don’t even know the extent of it. It’s crazy. It’s a blessing to have been part of that journey. Now I just want to cheer Saurabh’s vision forward.”

Instead of retreating into silence, Akali decided to write. Not memoirs, but ads. Headlines and body copy in his own hand, illegible in places, because Parkinson’s affects his writing, but sharp in thought.

Here are some of the lines he has written so far:

• I got diagnosed with Young Parkinson’s. It feels great to be called young again.
• 50 is too young to get Parkinson’s. What I got is termed Young Parkinson’s. 
• I promised myself I’d look at the bright side. To start with, it’s not fatal. Diabetes, blood pressure, and even the flu can kill you. But Parkinson’s won’t.”
• Yes, there is no cure for Parkinson’s yet. But some therapies help arrest its effects, which means I have made a lot of new friends in the last year: my neurotherapist, physiotherapists, speech therapist, mental health therapist, hypnotherapist, acupuncturist, physical trainer, pranic healer, senior psychotherapist and, most importantly, my doctor, who prescribes dopamine to me.
• Your brain produces dopamine when it experiences great pleasure. You have to exercise, eat an amazing meal or have great sex to produce dopamine. I simply pop a pill.
• I should have seen Parkinson’s coming. After all, I’ve always been a mover and shaker.

This instinct to laugh at adversity comes from home, Akali told BestMediaInfo.com. 

His mother died of cancer at 60, a death that, looking back, feels too soon. Yet the family turned even those hospital days into a celebration. 

“Her first hospitalisation happened just before Valentine’s Day. I and my brother, Praful (Founder, Medulla Communications), organised a Valentine’s dinner in her hospital room for Mom and Dad. We always made the most of the situation. There’s no point in being negative. It is what it is.”

That same philosophy fuels his Parkinson’s journey. “There was so much fear, ignorance, and taboo when I was diagnosed. I didn’t want people to go through that. So I decided to embrace it. If even one person feels inspired, that’s great.”

After years of running at full speed in advertising, Akali is now slowing down, deliberately. These days, the calendar looks different. It’s no longer stacked with client calls and pitch deadlines. It’s filled with family plans and bucket-list trips. 

His focus is on family, joy, and experiences. “We’ve all worked very hard. Now is the time to enjoy. I’m having fun planning holidays. I just finished booking a safari at the Masai Mara.”

There’s faith, too. “As a family, we’ve always believed in God and keeping faith. That’s what keeps us going.”

What advice would he give his younger self, just starting out in advertising? “Make the most of each day. Enjoy each moment. Look at the positive side of everything.”

He admitted he once thrived on stress. “All my life, I used stress to push myself. But I’d do the same without stress today. That’s something I learnt from Rakesh. He’s one of the most chilled people I’ve worked with. I’d tell my younger self to be more like him.”

He doesn’t sugarcoat the truth. “There are more bad days than good. There’s a huge fear. The truth is halfway.” But he refused to let the disease define him. “I’ve decided not to hide it.”

Instead, he makes jokes about the “advantages” of Parkinson’s: “I get to take sabbaticals. Skip morning and evening calls. Hire a new CCO who’s actually young. And I’ve made so many new friends in my therapists.”

Behind the humour lies grit. For a man who once made the world laugh at death, turning his own illness into copy feels fitting. His Parkinson’s ads may be personal, but they carry the same message as his most awarded work: you can face the darkest truths and still find the courage to laugh.