News Broadcasting
No Talkies brings out maximum Deewangi in media agencies
MUMBAI: SONY MAX, the premium Hindi movies and special events channel which recently launched its latest initiative“NO TALKIES”-India’s first National Dumb Charades competition for Media Agencies across Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore, has received an overwhelming response. The activity had its first ever regional rounds in Delhi on 18th September, followed by Bangalore on the 19th and Mumbai on 25th September. The media agencies who had enthusiastically registered for the initiative were waiting to get on stage and put their best foot forward.
Five teams have qualified for the finale of NO TALKIES. Delhi MAXUS had a clean sweep by clearing the regional round with 2 winning teams namely ‘Engineers’ & ‘MAXUS ke Deewane’. From Bangalore, ‘Thakur ke Aadmi’ from MAXUS qualified for the deciding round. The teams which performed the best in the Mumbai regional round were ‘Eena Meena Deeka’ and ‘MEC Fimly Deewane’ from Mindshare and MEC respectively.
The preliminary rounds of the activity witnessed team participation from top media agencies across Mindshare, Maxus, MEC, Motivator, Lodestar, Madision, Starcom, Lintas, OMD, MPG amongst others in the three cities.
Witnessing the passion of the participants, Vaishali Sharma, VP Marketing, MAX commented, “We are overwhelmed to see the enthusiasm with which media agencies have connected and participated in ‘NO TALKIES’. Everyone has a little bit of filmy deewanapan in their life and ‘NO TALKIES’ has given them the perfect avenue to showcase it. We look forward to an even more successful finale in Mumbai.”
The top 5 teams are now sharpening their acting skills to clinch the title of being crowned as the winner of ‘NO TALKIES’on 1st October at Blue Frog, Mumbai. It’s going to be a perfect recipe of a delightful & entertaining evening.
News Broadcasting
Senior media executive Madhu Soman exits Zee Media
Former Reuters and Bloomberg leader says he leaves with “no regrets” after brief stint at WION and Zee Business
NOIDA: Madhu Soman, a veteran of global newsrooms and media sales floors, has stepped away from Zee Media Corporation after a short stint steering business strategy for WION and Zee Business.
In a reflective LinkedIn note marking his departure, Soman said his time within the network’s corridors was always likely to be brief. “Some chapters close faster than expected,” he wrote, signalling the end of a nearly two-year spell in which he oversaw both editorial partnerships and commercial strategy.
Soman joined Zee Media in 2022 after more than a decade abroad with Reuters and Bloomberg, returning to India to take on the role of chief business officer for WION and Zee Business. His mandate was ambitious: bridge the newsroom and the revenue desk while expanding digital and broadcast reach.
During the stint, Zee Business reached break-even for the first time since its launch in 2005, while WION refreshed programming and strengthened its digital footprint across platforms such as YouTube and Facebook.
But Soman suggested the cultural fit proved uneasy. Describing himself as a “cultural misfit”, he hinted at deeper tensions between editorial instincts shaped in global newsrooms and the realities of India’s television news ecosystem.
Before joining Zee, Soman spent more than seven years at Bloomberg in Hong Kong as head of broadcast sales for Asia-Pacific, expanding the company’s news syndication business across several markets. Earlier, he held senior editorial roles at Reuters, overseeing online strategy in India and managing Reuters Video Services from London.
His career began in television and wire reporting, including a stint with ANI during the 1999 Kargil conflict, before moving into digital publishing as India’s internet media landscape took shape.
Now, after nearly three decades in broadcast and digital media, Soman is leaving Delhi NCR and returning to his hometown, Trivandrum.
Exhausted, he admits. But unbowed. And with one quiet line that sums up the journey: he didn’t sell his soul — because some things, after all, are not for sale.
