MAM
4-agency show at 3As of I awards night
MUMBAI: It was indeed a memorable evening. Memorable for those who won and even for those who attended. The 3As of I awards held in Mumbai’s Taj Land’s End Ballroom on 6 March 2003 had glamour, glitz and guts.
Glamour and glitz in the form of filmmaker Ismail Merchant,Vivek Oberoi and Ashutosh Gowarikar, and of course the numerous CEOs of ad agencies and marketing companies who made it a point to attend the award function.
Guts in the form of the fact that the 3As of I went ahead with the awards despite the fact that O&M, Leo Burnett India, Quadrant Communications, Lowe, Publicis Ambience, Lemon, Euro RSCG India and Contract Advertising chose to abstain. Sponsored by Star India with The Hindustan Times and Dainik Jagran being associate sponsors, the awards function nevertheless had a classy yet pulsating feel to it with advertising professionals opting for formal togs and cheering in sync with the music everytime their peers went up to collect an award.
The maximum cheers went out for McCann-Erickson, Enterprise Nexus and Mudra – agencies which walked away with a clutch of the small triangles. Rediffusion DY&R also pocketed many awards but the cheers were not as loud.
The four agencies cornered more than than three-quarters of the awards, with McCann and Enterprise walking away with all five golds awarded. McCann had the added pleasure of being associated with the Copywriter of the Year and the Advertiser of the Year awards, while Enterprise did itself proud by winning the lone Grand Prix Silver in the International Jury Awards category.
But the standout campaign of the 2002 was the Coca-Cola one which featured actor Aamir Khan in the ‘Thanda matlab…’ series. McCann Erikson and its national director Prasoon Joshi got a bagful of trophies for their efforts.
Among the 13 jury members for the eighth 3AAAs of I Awards were, Indu Balachandran (JWT), Agnello Dias (Leo Burnett), Prasoon Joshi (MccANN Erickson), Deepa Kakkar (RK Swamy BBDO) and Kaushik Roy (Mudra). Among the six members for brand performance awards jury were Arun Adhikari (HLL), Sam Balsara (Madison Communications), Sarang Panchal (AC Nielsen) and Bharat Patel (P&G).
The international jury that decided on grand Prix winners had Christopher D’ Rozario (JWT, New York), Neil Johnson (DDB Worldwide, Singapore), Milka Pogliani (McCann Erickson, Milan), Piyush Pandey (O&M, India) and Mohammed Khan (Enterprise Nexus, India) among others.
The host for the night was Kaushik Roy.
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.
