MAM
coto welcomes Ankita Gupta, CEO & founder at Digitactix, as their new community advisor
Mumbai: coto, a leading community-driven platform, proudly announces the addition of Digitactix CEO & founder Ankita Gupta to their team as their new community advisor. As a seasoned entrepreneur and digital marketing expert, Ankita Gupta brings extensive experience and expertise in digital marketing to the coto platform.
Over the span of eight years, Ankita has led her team at Digitactix to successfully serve over 250 global clients earning her various accolades. At coto, she will play a crucial role in advising the consultants and experts on digital marketing trends, social media engagement, and brand positioning. This will further help the consultants and experts at coto to build compelling digital marketing campaigns for their respective communities and also empower them with diverse perspectives, experiences, and expertise that will hone their entrepreneurship skills online.
Ankita expressed her enthusiasm for partnering with coto, stating, “I believe that digital marketing isn’t merely a choice but a revolutionary change that compels startups to rewrite their marketing playbooks. By joining coto’s Community Advisory Board, I am excited to share my expertise and collaborate with women on innovative marketing strategies that drive diverse communities toward success. Together with coto, our emphasis will be on fostering community, practising ethical marketing, and sharing knowledge, alongside the focus on women-led Q&A content, quick consultations, and round-the-clock support for women, which distinguishes coto as the preferred social community platform for women.”
coto co-founder Aparna Acharekar, commented on Ankita’s recent onboarding, stating, “As a women-led platform, we are thrilled to announce that Ankita’s inclusion as one of our community advisors serves as an inspiration for all our coto communities. With digital empowerment advocates like Ankita on board, I am confident that we will create content and commerce opportunities to secure financial independence for women.”
Ankita’s educational experiences at prestigious institutions such as IIM Ahmedabad and Harvard have honed her business expertise, and her background at the Indian Institute of Modern Management in Pune has solidified her marketing fundamentals.
Apart from digital marketing, Ankita is also dedicated to sustainability. She firmly believes that in the digital realm, sustainability isn’t just an option but a necessity for the future. Her dedication to integrating sustainable solutions into digital marketing strategies has set her apart in the industry.
Digital
Content India 2026 opens with a copro pitch, a spice evangelist and a £10,000 prize for Indian storytelling
Dish TV and C21Media’s three-day summit puts seven ambitious projects before an international jury, and two walk away with serious development money
MUMBAI: India’s content industry gathered in Mumbai this March for Content India 2026, a three-day summit organised by Dish TV in partnership with C21Media, and it wasted no time making a statement. The event opened with a Copro Pitch that put seven scripted and unscripted television concepts before an international panel of judges, and by the end of it, two projects had walked away with £10,000 each in marketing prize money from C21Media to support development and international promotion.
The jury, comprising Frank Spotnitz, Fiona Campbell, Rashmi Bajpai, Bal Samra and Rachel Glaister, evaluated a shortlist that ranged from a dark Mumbai comedy-drama about mental health (Dirty Minds, created by Sundar Aaron) to a Delhi coming-of-age mystery (Djinn Patrol, by Neha Sharma and Kilian Irwin), a techno-thriller about a teenage gaming prodigy (Kanpur X Satori, by Suchita Bhatia), an investigative crime drama blending mythology and modern thriller (The Age of Kali, by Shivani Bhatija), a documentary on India’s spice heritage (The Masala Quest, hosted by Sarina Kamini), a documentary on competitive gaming (Respawn: India’s Esports Revolution, by George Mangala Thomas and Sangram Mawari), and a reality-horror competition merging gaming and immersive fear (Scary Goose, by Samar Iqbal).
The session was hosted by Mayank Shekhar.
The two winners were Djinn Patrol, backed by Miura Kite, formerly of Participant Media and known for Chinatown and Keep Sweet: Pray & Obey, with Jaya Entertainment, producers of Real Kashmir Football Club, also attached; and The Masala Quest, created and hosted by Sarina Kamini, an Indian-Australian cook, author and self-described “spice evangelist.”
The summit also unveiled the Content India Trends Report, whose findings made for bracing reading. Daoud Jackson, senior analyst at OMDIA, set the tone: “By 2030, online video in India will nearly double the revenue of traditional TV, becoming the main driver of growth.” He noted that in 2025, India produced a quarter of all YouTube videos globally, overtaking the United States, while Indians collectively spend 117 years daily on YouTube and 72 years on Instagram. Traditional subscription TV is declining as free TV and connected TV gain ground, forcing broadcasters to innovate. “AI-generated content is just 2 per cent of engagement,” Jackson added, “highlighting the dominance of high-quality human content. The key for Indian media companies is scaling while monetising effectively from day one.”
Hannah Walsh, principal analyst at Ampere Analysis, added hard numbers to the picture. India produced over 24,000 titles in January 2026 alone, with 19,000 available internationally. The country now accounts for 12 per cent of Asia-Pacific content spend, up from 8 per cent in 2021, outpacing both Japan and China. Key exporters include JioStar, Zee Entertainment, Sony India, Amazon and Netflix, delivering over 7,500 Indian-produced titles abroad each year. The top importing markets are Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, the United States and the Philippines. Scripted content dominates globally at 88 per cent, with crime dramas and children’s and family titles performing particularly strongly.
Manoj Dobhal, chief executive and executive director of Dish TV India, framed the summit’s ambition squarely. “Stories don’t need translation. They need a platform, discovery, and reach, local or global,” he said. “India produces more movies than any country, our streaming platforms compete globally, and our tech and creators win international awards. Yet fragmentation slows growth. Producers, platforms, and tech move in different lanes. We need shared spaces, collaboration, and an ecosystem where ideas, technology, and people meet. That is why we built Content India.”
The data, the pitches and the prize money all pointed to the same conclusion: India is not waiting for the world to discover its stories. It is building the infrastructure to sell them.
