MAM
Zubin Gandevia to take over as managing director NGC Asia
NEW DELHI: Having spun a success story in India with National Geographic Channel (NGC), it’s time for the organisation’s MD Zubin Gandevia to move ahead to play larger role for NGC in Asia as its managing director.
Nikhil Mirchandani, who was heading the ad sales for NGC Network India will be appointed the MD of NGC Network India on 1 January, 2006. Mirchandani will be taking over from Gandevia who will move to Hong Kong.
Gandevia will take on the management responsibility for the National Geographic Channel and A1 Channel businesses across the territories of Hong Kong, Taiwan and South East Asia besides continuing to oversee the India and Middle East businesses.
He will continue to report to Ward Platt, Group MD Asia for National Geographic Channels International and Fox International Channels, who will be based in Tokyo from October of this year.
Speaking to Indiantelevision.com after the changes were made official today, Gandevia said, “It’s quite gratifying to see the channel today from where we started in 1999 when there was no focus.”
According to Gandevia, the Indian market presently contributes about 40 per cent to NGC’s overall Asian revenue kitty.
Gandevia has been the MD of NGC India since 1 January, 2000. He also spearheaded the successful launch of The History Channel in India in 2003.
Talking about his priorities in the new assignment, Gandevia said that he would try to understand the cross cultural markets.
“Also, being in the regional headquarters, it would help in making the parent organisation understand the Indian market better on broader issues,” he explained
Mirchandani has been responsible for building the ad sales team for National Geographic Channel and The History Channel and growing revenues by over 300 per cent over the past 12 months.
As NGC India MD, Mirchandani will be in charge of both National Geographic Channel and The History Channel for the Middle East, India and its neighbouring countries and will continue to head ad sales for all these regions.
Agreeing that Gandevia’s would be a “tough act to follow” in India, Mirchandani said that the overall focus of NGC would remain the same in India, while continuing the effort to grow the channel shares.
“For the last six weeks, NGC has been the No 1 channel in the infotainment genre and the revenue has come in at the expense of a mix of other genre like movies, infotainment and to some extent even general entertainment,” Mirchandani said.
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.
