Jackie Thakkar joins Nikhil Kamath’s WTF as Lead Creative Producer

Mumbai: Jackie Thakkar is on the move again, and the timing is telling. As digital studios race to mint scalable intellectual property, the creative producer known for marrying brands and storytelling has joined WTF as lead creative producer, tasked with developing and executing new-age content IPs at Nikhil Kamath’s content studio.

Thakkar arrives with a résumé built for the attention economy. At JioHotstar, where he served as supervising creative producer for branded content, he led and created India’s Ultimate MotoStar, a Castrol Power1-backed reality show that ran on MTV and JioHotstar in 2024. He steered it from script to screen, working on anchor links, contestant diaries, edits and final delivery. The show drew strong reviews and added to his credentials as a builder of advertiser-funded entertainment.

His stint also included shaping title marketing and branded projects across marquee channels such as Colors TV, MTV, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central. Campaigns with Amazon miniTV, Garnier and Castrol Power1 ranged from integrations to full web series. An early win included cracking a brief for Imperial Blue’s “Men Will Be Men” communication and helping craft a Holi campaign around Bigg Boss stars.

Before the broadcast scale came digital muscle. At Pocket Aces’ FilterCopy, first as senior creative associate and later as creative director, Thakkar led writers and directors while pushing new video IPs. His breakout script, When Your Boyfriend Puts You in Awkward Situations, became FilterCopy’s most viewed video of 2020 with more than 20 million views. Projects under his watch collectively crossed 100 million-plus views on YouTube.

Earlier, at Arré, he was part of the four-member team that grew the channel from 300,000 to 2 million subscribers in two years. The platform’s presence expanded nearly sevenfold. His If Gaitonde… spoof series won a 2019 Talentrack Award, and he wrote sketches featuring Vidya Balan, Kangana Ranaut, Rajkummar Rao and Kartik Aaryan, alongside more than 100 articles spanning pop culture, politics and relationships.

The backstory stretches from copywriting at Merry Men to assistant directing in Los Angeles after a filmmaking and creative-writing course at UCLA. Even his teenage years included film criticism for BookMyShow and campus pieces for AOL.

The through line is clear: branded stories that travel. As platforms blur the lines between advertising and entertainment, creators who can sell without seeming to sell are in demand.

New studio, bigger canvas. In the content arms race, Jackie Thakkar is betting that sharp ideas still cut through the noise. And in a market hooked on views, brands and virality, the next hit is always one script away.