MAM
9-year old Akhilesh will be the 1st ‘Toonstar’ to act with Scooby-Doo
MUMBAI: It is a dream come true for nine year-old Akhilesh Ganatra, a resident of the Thane district of Maharashtra. The little boy has won an opportunity to act along with cartoon character Scooby-Doo and Kwality Wall’s mascot Max lion in a specially produced animation film as part of the ‘Bano Toonstar with Scooby-Doo and Max’.
The promo was jointly conceptualised by Hindustan Lever’s (HLL) Kwality Walls ice cream and Cartoon Network’s Off Channel Commerce Group. A total of 12 Toonstars will star in six mini animation series that will be produced by Cartoon Network in June-July and be aired in August-September.
Ganatra was quoted as saying: “I am so happy and excited to be a Toonstar. Since I got to know that I have a chance to be on the Cartoon Network with Scooby-Doo, I have only wanted to win! I love Max ice creams and have been saving all my wrappers.”
“When scratch card said ‘Toonstar’, I ran to tell my mother that I had won! But, she thought I had come asking for another ice cream. Finally, when the storeowner told her that I had really won, she believed me – I am a Toonstar! I am really waiting to go on an adventure with Scooby-Doo and Max and beat up ghosts with them!” Ganatra added. His mother adds that he used to often force her to buy Max ice cream and crazy about Cartoon Network.
The promo, billed as the biggest promotion from Kwality Wall’s in this year, will extend through the summer till 31 May 2003. To participate and win an assured prize, children need to collect three Max wrappers that have the special ‘Bano Toonstar’ logo; rush to the nearest redemption centre (named as the Max jungle); and collect their special scratch card. A release says that the Max number on the card will entitle them to a range of prizes from comics to Max jungle trail board games to cameras to tents and the opportunity to become a Toonstar!
HLL ice cream division executive director JH Mehta was quoted as saying: “It is great to see how passionately kids from across the country have responded to ‘Bano Toonstar with Scooby-Doo and Max’ promotion. We heartily congratulate Akhilesh for becoming the first Toonstar.”
Turner Entertainment Networks Asia regional entertainment advertising sales vice president Soumitra Saha quoted as saying: “This unique lecensing promotion by Cartoon Network with Scooby-Doo in India and we are delighted with the positive response that the promotion has received. The integrated promotion demonstrates the campaign’s effectiveness and is also an excellent example of the marketing solutions that cartoon Network offers through multiple platforms for advertisers.”
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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.
