MAM
Zohar Furniturewala joins Scarecrow as ECD
MUMBAI: To beef up its art department – Scarecrow – is bringing Zohar Furniturewala on board as ECD.
Commenting on the development, Scarecrow founder director Manish Bhatt said: “At the current stage of Scarecrow’s nonstop four year long journey, Scarecrow handles many brands like ITC (Vivel & Fiama Di Wills), Joy Cosmetics, Vimal, Lava and other brands across various categories like lifestyle, personal care, beauty, fashion etc. which demand new design ideas every day. So, apart from Kapil Tammal, Scarecrow was looking for one more design mentor, which we found in Zohar. He is not only a great design mind but also a great idea person and an occasional writer too. And his experience of running a design house will help him to become one of the rare creative people who understand the business we are in.”
Furniturewala will be joining the agency’s Mumbai office on 1 April. As its aftermath, Scarecrow Mumbai Art department will be divided into two groups. Kapil Tammal and Zohar Furniturewala will mentor the Art department and each group will handle more than 15 brands.
Zohar has fifteen years of experience in creating and executing idea-led brand campaigns & design projects, while running agencies and creative departments. Specific areas of expertise include: creative leadership, robust knowledge of advertising and communication, great inter-personal relationships, team playing, perfectionism, freethinking and learning.
Thorough with creative business management aided by a keen insight and understanding of how businesses and clients work, Zohar founded the Thunk Design Company in 2007, where he handled fashion & lifestyle brands, home appliances and media brands (Reliance Corporate, Mustang Socks and Accessories, Optima Communications -Middle East, Chromozome Men’s Innerwear, Futurebazaar.com.)
After studying BFA from Sir J.J. Institute of Applied Arts majoring in Typography, Zohar started his career in Ambience in 1998.
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.
