MAM
Crazeal, Citizen Watches and ASUS partner with Dark Knight
MUMBAI: As one of the most awaited Hollywood movies ‘The Dark Knight Rises‘ releases in India, the brands are leveraging the opportunity by partnering with it to increase their visibility and reach to their target consumers.
Crazeal is promoting its new ad campaign through the TDKR release. The company is hosting a special screening of the movie for its audience and is offering discounts on the movie tickets. The company will showcase its ‘Who Can Resist‘ campaign at the time of screening. It is holding the screening across nine cities including Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Jaipur, Chandigarh and Kolkata. Special Crazeal-Batman memento will be given out and there will be on-ground activities.
Groupon India (parent company of Crazeal.com) CEO Ankur Warikoo said, “It is an experiential marketing activity. There is a similarity between the target audience of Crazeal and TDKR. We have tied-up with different theatres in different cities. We have taken the theatres that match with our target consumers. This will help increase visibility, engage our consumers and create a physical contact. We are also going to display our commercials of the new ad campaign.”
Crazeal CMO Sachin Kapur added, “Our target audience who we are tapping through this activity is mainly Gen X, because Gen Y has never been exposed to Batman comics. On the site we are just running the deal, but we are promoting this via our social media fan pages. It is a comprehensive BTL activity.”
Citizen Watches India has tied up with Warner Bros‘ The Dark Knight Rises (TDKR) to promote its new Super Titanium range. The company is launching a multi-media campaign via television, press, digital, outdoor, multi-brand stores across the country and ambient media in Cinema foyer.
Citizen Watches India MD Katsusuke Tokura said, “The Batman symbolises resilience, toughness and durability which co-relates to the new Super Titanium collection from Citizen ensuring a strong co-branding message to our target consumer”.
The media agency working on the account of Citizen Watches is Initiative media.
Initiative Media executive vice president – South Subhas Warrier added, “The tie up was very apt as the brand was looking for sstrong association that is topical in nature to coincide with the bringing of the Super Titanium range to the ever discerning Indian consumers. Talking to them through legendry movies such as The Dark Knight series leaves a stronger imprint in the consumer mind”.
Citizen Watch buyers had got a chance to watch the film at a Pre-screening before the World did. The selective buyers of the Super Titanium watch will be also given free movie passes.
ASUS and Warner Bros. have engaged in a special cooperative campaign to highlight TDKR. The caped crusader has chosen ASUS tablets and notebooks as the official portable computing products of his latest campaign.
From now until 31 August, ASUS and Warner Bros. are giving customers around the globe the chance to get more immersed in the thrills of The Dark Knight. In addition to joint marketing efforts, ASUS products are also set to act as the official sponsors of The Dark Knight premiere in select markets.
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.
