MAM
Arun Sharma appointed as DDB Mudra head of planning
MUMBAI: DDB Mudra has roped in Arun Sharma as head of planning, DDB Mudra Delhi. He will report in to DDB Mudra senior vice president Aditya Kanthy.
Arun will be working on the agency’s client roster including Wrigley’s, Bata, Carrier Midea, India Yamaha Motors and Dabur among others.
Arun joins DDB Mudra Delhi from Contract Advertising where he was VP, strategic planning. On joining DDB Mudra, Arun said, “DDB Mudra has a well known culture of planning and it’s an opportunity for me to partner Vandana and Aditya in implementing the bold planning vision for the agency.”
With over 14 years of experience, Arun has worked on automobiles, telecom, confectionery, education, home appliances and airlines to name a few.
Commenting on Arun’s appointment, DDB Mudra Group, Delhi president Vandana Das said, “I Welcome Arun to the DDB Mudra Group family. He has vast experience across categories and I’m sure with his experience, he would be able to add value to all our current businesses and also towards our new business initiatives.”
Adding to this, DDB Mudra senior VP planning Aditya Kanthy said, “Arun is a bright, ambitious and full of energy – just the kind of person we were looking for to lead our terrific young planners in Delhi. His experience is a good match for our client profile. He should have no trouble easing into our culture. I’m sure he’ll enjoy it.”
In his earlier stints with leading agencies like Lowe, Saatchi & Saatchi and Rediffusion Y&R he got the opportunity to work on some of the largest brands in the country like Airtel, Hyundai, and Maruti Suzuki.
Arun also had a two-year stint with ABN Amro Bank, before Contract, where he was one of the key persons responsible for the launch of ABN AMRO Broking, the retail brokerage division of ABN AMRO and managed NRI Banking.
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.
