MAM
Nirvana Music launches official world cup cricket album
MUMBAI: The music industry is cashing in on World Cup cricket fever. Nirvana Music, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nimbus Communications, yesterday announced the launch of Khel Re – the official music album of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2003.
While this is an album that celebrates a cricketing extravaganza that occurs once every four years, it’s about more than just the game. It focuses on passion in all its forms and the road one has to travel to achieve one’s dreams.
“Through the album we’ve explored the intricacies of life, celebrated the spirit of man in not giving up and emerging victorious,” says Nirvana Music business head Rahul Guha.
Popular singer Sukhwinder Singh, who sings the song Raahon Mein on the album says: “We all dream of being successful in life, but success comes at a price. Through the song, I want to tell our team to stand up and overcome each hurdle that stands in the way of us winning the World Cup. Come on guys, we can do it!”
The beauty of Khel Re is that it is an album that is timeless. Anyone can identify with the songs, find meaning in them and enjoy them in times to come. All of this created in a manner that is stylish and meaningful. Further, rarely do top musicians and singers join hands to contribute to an album.
Khel Re is indeed huge in terms of artist involvement. Top composers Jatin-Lalit, Rajesh Roshan, Sajid-Wajid, Lalit Sen, Nitin Raikwar have combined with new and young talent like Harpreet, Jeet M. Ganguli and Jayanta Pathak to contribute soulful and energetic tunes to the album.
In addition to Sukhwinder Singh (Raahon mein), the album also features the exceptional vocal talents of Alka Yagnik and Abhijeet (Naye naye sapnein), KK (Waqt), Sunidhi Chauhan (Khamoshi), Shankar Mahadevan (Sabse aage), Vasundhara Das and Sudesh Bhosle (Khelna hai re), Vinod Rathod (Humko hai yakeen), Bali Brahmabhatt (Hum hai jahan). Bands like Parikrama (But it rained)and PMC (Dil bharian) also feature on the album, providing variety that is meant to reflect the breadth of music popular in this country.
The video of the song Khelna Hai Re is currently on air on MTV, exclusively. It will be featured on all music channels, as well as a few others like CMM, Zee Cinema, Zee Alpha, SABe and Sahara by the first week of February.
Hero Honda, LG and Doordarshan are also associated with the album.
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.
