MAM
Carnival Cinemas ropes in Saurabh Saxena as COO
MUMBAI: Carnival Cinemas has appointed Saurabh Saxena as its chief operating officer (COO).
With over 24 years of experience in the hospitality and entertainment industry, Saxena has previously worked in multiplex companies such as PVR, Fame Cinemas (now Inox Movies), Big Cinemas, Cinemax, Wave Cinemas and Sahara Entertainment. Most recently he was with Sahara India as head of entertainment.
Saxena said, “Carnival is a magnificent company with an incredible team, great vision and now on an advantageous position in the film exhibition sector. It is a great honour to join its leadership team and have the opportunity to build on its success.”
After acquiring HDIL’s Broadway, Reliance’s Big Cinemas and Glitz Cinemas, Carnival now has 346 plus screens operating in the country. It has a vision to have 1000 screens in next two years. With presence in metro cities along with tier 2 and tier 3 cities, Carnival Cinemas aims to offer better movie watching experience across the nation.
It is currently present in Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.
Brands
Faber-Castell India appoints Sunaina Haldar as director – marketing
With stints at Tata, SleepyCat and ADF Foods under her belt, Haldar is primed to redraw Faber-Castell’s brand story
MUMBAI: Faber-Castell India has poached Sunaina Haldar from ADF Foods, appointing her director – marketing as the German stationery brand looks to muscle up in a category that is rapidly reinventing itself around creativity and self-expression.
Haldar hit the ground running. “My first couple of weeks have been incredibly energising, understanding consumers, visiting markets, engaging with retailers and immersing myself into the world of Faber-Castell Group,” she said.
She arrives with considerable firepower. At ADF Foods, Haldar ran marketing across India and international markets for a portfolio spanning Ashoka, Aeroplane, Camel and ADF Soul. Before that, she was vice-president – marketing at direct-to-consumer mattress brand SleepyCat, where she helmed brand, content and performance marketing. Her résumé also includes a stint leading marketing, new product development and CRM for Tata SmartFoodz at Tata Consumer Products, no small proving ground.
Between corporate roles, Haldar also operated as a fractional CMO for early-stage startups, building marketing strategy and operational structures from scratch, a signal that she knows how to move fast with limited resources.
With 18 years straddling FMCG, D2C and the startup world, Haldar now takes the reins at a brand that has long owned the classroom but is clearly hungry for the living room. In a stationery market where the pencil has become a lifestyle statement, Faber-Castell has picked someone who knows exactly how to sell that story.
