MAM
WPP scales up investment in India with new Chennai campus
Chennai – WPP announceD a further investment in India, its fifth largest market, as it opens a new state-of-the-art campus in Chennai.
With over 11,000 people, India is a twin growth engine for WPP, being home both to some of the company’s best performing agency teams and many of its global support functions. WPP’s Enterprise Technology team in India are the first to move into the new Chennai campus, with further teams joining at a later date.
The new campus is WPP’s third in India after Mumbai and Gurgaon and forms part of the company’s global strategy to provide inspiring, collaborative and flexible spaces for its people. By bringing together the best talent, technological capabilities and facilities under one roof, WPP is able to effectively support its teams in their career development and their delivery of outstanding work for clients. WPP plans to continue to scale its presence in India, one of its fastest growing markets, by adding campuses in Bangalore and Coimbatore over the next few years.
The Chennai campus is located at RMZ One Paramount and has been designed to enhance the employee experience, featuring a dedicated ‘marketplace’ of food and beverage options, EV charging, a day-care centre, several permanent art installations by prominent artists and a wellness terrace that includes a futsal court, a running track and a yoga deck. Over 62,000 square feet in size, the campus has been designed to initially accommodate over 330 people in phase one, with an expansion to 650 people by mid-2025.
In line with WPP’s net zero commitments, the circular-designed campus incorporates green building materials. RMZ One Paramount has also been LEED Platinum certified due to its sustainability credentials, including grey water recycling and roof collection, on-site electricity generation and regenerative architecture.
WPP’s country manager for India, CVL Srinivas said: “The scalability of our operations and expertise of our team in India makes it the prime location to power WPP’s global support functions, including the WPP Enterprise Technology team. WPP’s commitment to India through our investment in a new Chennai campus, with further campuses in Bangalore and Coimbatore on the near horizon, ensures the market will remain a significant growth driver for WPP.”
WPP CEO Mark Read said: “India continues to be one of our fastest-growing markets thanks to its technological innovation, creative output and specialist skillsets. WPP is committed to investing in India through our new campuses, creating spaces that foster collaboration, inspire creativity and enable career development. In doing so, we are opening up new opportunities for our people in India and supporting our clients’ growth ambitions – both domestically, in the world’s most populous nation, and abroad.”
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.
