MAM
Everest creates sweet wonderland on TV for Londonderry
MUMBAI : Everest Brand Solutions, the creative agency of record for Parle‘s confectionery range, has created the launch campaign for Londonderry. The three television commercials (TVCs) are produced by Picture Perfect.
Londonderry is the latest offering from the group of Parle Products. It is a hard-boiled candy filled with caramel and milk solids.
The objective was to enter the Lacto candy market in India and thus to create a clutter-breaking communication for the consumers and register the new brand‘s identity in their minds. The brand name is inspired from an actual town in Ireland.
In order to make a distinct presence in the cluttered candy market, the packaging of the candy includes a red wrapper with the Londonderry town snap on the face.
The TVCs which are a part of the launch campaign are inspired by the English-Irish culture of the Irish town of Londonderry. Three commercials capturing the old world charm of this city have been conceptualised and launched.
The purpose of the commercials is to capture the imagination of the masses by doing something simple yet fascinating. The TVCs show an imaginary town full of sweet wonders, whether it is a dancing cow, a painter who paints with his beard or a kid with a special talent for fast reading. The commercials end with the message: “But that‘s not what Londonderry is famous for, It‘s famous for its rich milk and caramel candy. Londonderry. Tasty. Very Very.”
Everest NCD Rahul Jauhari said, “The vision was to craft the brand as an International one. I‘m pretty happy with the way our team has managed to achieve that. Kids are loving the films. That‘s good enough reward for the hard work that‘s gone in.”
Everest creative director Pramod Sharma said, “The films are part real, part magical. Bringing these stories to life was a real challenge. Especially in a timeframe as short as 25 seconds. The cast, location, the setup, the animation – all were chosen very, very carefully. Peter Pasic & Ricky Kapoor‘s team did a fine job of making sure everything fell into place just right.”
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.
