MAM
MTV and Crusoe tie up to launch range of men’s innerwear brand
MUMBAI: Treading the unconventional route yet again, youth entertainment channel MTV has tied up with mens innerwear Crusoe to launch the ‘Roadies’ range of innerwear.
The collection, called ‘MTV Roadies Men’s Innerwear by Crusoe’, comprises nearly 50 style options available at more than 1000 retail points, across India, including large format stores, multi-brand-outlets and exclusive Crusoe outlets apart from online sales options.
Viacom18 Media senior vice president, consumer products and communications Sandeep Dahiya said, “Over the last one year I think what we have also tried to do is try the unconventional. The brands that we have lend themselves very well to the unconventional categories and ideas. We thought we have stationary, eyewear, apparels, footwear and what have you. So why not explore categories which have not been explored yet – globally or anywhere else. Again, research and insight told us that innerwear in India is very boring more so in the men’s range.”
Research has led to the insight that for youngsters, innerwear is not just innerwear anymore. People now prefer to show it off and it has become as much a part of the ensemble as the regular clothes. The brand Roadies has been associated with daring, attitude and a rugged youth feel since the first season of the show. It lent as the synergistic partner for a men’s innerwear range.
Speaking about this particular range Dahiya said, “Today’s youth is exploring more and expressing more when it comes to innerwear, and the MTV Roadies range by Crusoe gives them over 50 design options to choose from. We were looking for a brand which has synergy to partner with. Secondly we looked at brands which had similar mindset as us. We were looking for answers to questions like do they fall in the same space? Are they open to experiment? Are they open to playing and have an attitude like ours?”
Imbuing the Roadies feel, the range is adventurous, out-doors, confident and upbeat. It comprises design elements like graphics, patterns and twisted-phrases and colours to make it unique and aspirational. The designs reflect the Roadies’ attitude with a variety of 12 styles like Maverick Briefs, Voyage Briefs, Gypsy Boxer Briefs, Beach Boxers, Wave Shorts, Surfer Shorts, Panache Vests and Getaway Shorts.
Crusoe chief marketing officer Abhishek Tibrewal said, “MTV Roadies is a cult brand with huge following in the youth space and has great synergies with our brand ‘Crusoe‘. We‘ve developed a great range comprising over 50 styles and we‘re confident of it doing exceedingly well at retail.”
Licensing and merchandising is an area of marketing that is only just rearing its head in India and one foresees bright prospects for the same.
Dahiya says, “Licensing is a fairly new deal in India and so you need an open mindset more so you can converge there and then talk about ideas at the thought level, the design level, pricing, positioning and so on and so forth.”
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.
