MAM
Health ministry launches music video campaign against tobacco consumption
MUMBAI: The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare’s (MoHFW) tobacco control campaign has launched a music video ‘Life Se Panga mat Le Yaar‘.
The track of the campaign has been sung by singer Shaan, who was announced as the tobacco control ambassador of India in May 2011. It is targeted towards youth and adolescents all over the country and sends a strong message that life without tobacco is “a life worth living”.
The campaign is being aired on radio stations like Radio Mirchi, Radio City, Big FM and Red FM across India since 28 January 2012. On 1 February, the music video was unveiled on MTV, Sab, UTV Bindass and 9XM. The track runs for 2.3 minutes.
National level mass media public awareness campaigns are important component of the National Tobacco Control Programme (NTCP). As per the ‘WHO report on Global Tobacco Epidemic 2011’, India is one of the few countries to have a dedicated budget for the tobacco control mass media campaign.
As per estimates, in India nearly 1 million people die every year due to diseases related to tobacco use. If current trends continue tobacco will account for 13 per cent of all deaths in India by 2020. As per Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) report, nearly 50 per cent of cancers among males, 25 per cent among females about 80–90 per cent of all the oral cancers are associated with tobacco use.
Available evidence suggests that 40 per cent of all TB deaths, majority of cardio vascular diseases and lung disorders are directly attributable to tobacco consumption. Tobacco has also been identified as a risk factor for Non-communicable disease (NCD) and it accounts for one in six deaths resulting from NCD‘s.
As per the Global Adult Tobacco Survey-India (GATS -2010) conducted in the age group 15 and above, over 35 per cent of the population in India consume tobacco in some form or other, with 47 per cent male and 20.8 per cent female consuming some form of tobacco. In absolute numbers there are 275 million users of tobacco in India. Thus, India is second only to china, which has over 300 million smokers, who are mostly males.
Further as per the Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS 2009), 14.6 per cent of the youth in the age group of 13-15 years consume tobacco in some form or other. There are also studies indicating that 5500 youth in India start tobacco use every day.
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.
