MAM
Sachin Tendulkar is Canon India’s brand ambassador
BANGALORE: In an attempt to Indianise its brand appeal, Canon India (CI) has signed on Sachin Tendulkar as its corporate brand ambassador.
Celebrating its 10th anniversary year in India, Canon will use Tendulkar in retail, press and outdoor campaigns. He will also be a part of the special CI Anniversary Calendar that will be shot by ace photographer Atul Kasbekar to be launched later this year.
Says CI VP Alok Bharadwaj, “It is a proud moment for all of us at CI as we close our first decade in India. The company started operations in 1997 and has grown tremendously since then touching revenues of Rs 4 billion in 2006. It was a momentous occasion to have acquired over 1 million customers in December 2006 and to have received 151 awards in 9 years. The digital imaging industry in India has a positive outlook and we are confident that the next decade will be as successful as the first. We are very excited about this year as we are entering in Phase II of our growth in India.”.
Starting January 2007, the company will be embarking on an aggressive communication program which will feature editorial and advertising campaigns across different media. As the company continues to increase its penetration in smaller cities and reach out more socio-economic segments, enhancing the brand connect will be an important direction. CI will be spending over Rs.300 million towards brand building initiatives to make the CI brand more appealing to the target audience through visibility at various customer touch points, and the tie up with Sachin Tendulkar will integrate with this program.
As a part of these celebrations, CI will be embarking on a 100 city customer contact program through a Mobile Mini Expo across different Tier 2 and 3 cities. This Expo will aim at increasing customer awareness, introducing channel partners to the CI Gyan Yatra and will culminate in a Grand Expo to be held in October 2007.
The official release also claims that CI will be announcing the inauguration of its first Digital Media Lab located at School of Convergence in New Delhi. The lab will be equipped with all the latest CI products needed for students to learn didgital still photography. CI is looking at opening more such centers across the country through the anniversary year.
CI will be strengthening its retail presence across the country. CI has engaged with 237 retail outlets currently including 140 IT Imaging zones, 54 Digiclick Zones, 2 Digic Video Zones, 4 CI Xperience Zones and 32 CI Care Centers. The company plans to take these to 500 stores by the end of 2007. On the retail front, CI will tie up with 20 national retail chains and 50 city based retail chains.
In addition, CI announced that it will be opening a Level 3 CI master service center for the service of its camera, camcorder and professional camera range of products in Mumbai.
The company also announced the CI ‘Excellence Awards’ which will aim at identifying and recognizing performers in different categories to celebrate CI’s 10th anniversary and India’s 60th year of Independence.
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.
