MAM
Missed being at Cannes Lions? Don’t fret, take a look
MUMBAI: At the 61st edition of Cannes Lions a lot has happened that one would want to a keep a note of.
Think of any big name from the media, marketing, advertising industry and they were there, sharing their experiences and views on the industry. Keeping those who couldn’t attend the festival of creativity, the organisers promotes its major happenings real time across Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
From session highlights to picture updates; ad men, agency networks, other attendees were all out on social posting.
Indiantelevision.com lists down 20 thought provoking tweets and tidbits to bring home the flavour of Cannes Lions 2014…
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“Marketing was about making a myth and telling it. Now it’s telling a truth and sharing it” — Marc Mathieu @Unilever #CannesLions
“You achieve more from failure than you do from success.” –@JaredLeto at #CannesLions #OgilvyCannes MT @ThamKhaiMeng
We are all born creative. We just got it educated out of us. –@ThamKhaiMeng #OgilvyCannes #CannesLions
Selling ideas is a hard job… Avoid those who make it more complex. They often nitpick without real solutions. #CannesLions #OgilvyCannes
Use creativity to solve a problem you’ve never seen. That’s what drives the world. @neiltyson #canneslions #ogilvycannes
Successful people lose more than they win… Find insight after losing. Find faults after winning. #CannesLions #OgilvyCannes
Your first job is the second part of your education. #CannesLions #OgilvyCannes
“The best thing about the fall of BlackBerry and the rise of Apple is the win of creativity,” – @kanyewest @PulseofCulture #CannesLions
“If people are saying you’re wrong, that’s a good sign that you’re probably a genius” – @SteveStoute @PulseofCulture #CannesLions
Global advertising doesn’t work. It glides past people, isn’t part of their culture, doesn’t touch them-John Hegarty @bbhlondon #CannesLions
‘You cannot market an artist like a yogurt, but you can definitely market a yogurt like an artist’ Olivier Robert-Murphy @UMG #CannesLions
‘Bad advertising online is shit. Bad advertising on mobile is just offensive’ – @ddroga #CannesLions
Weber Shandwick US @WeberShandwick
“If you’ve got nothing to say, the technology doesn’t matter” #profaneandpolitical #wscannes2014
The biggest risk is not to take a risk. Be brave. #ipgCannes2014 #HHCannes #CannesLions @WeberShandwick #unapologetic
“Risk is the mother of #innovation” says Tim Webber @Framestore @Cannes_Lions #CannesLions
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.
