Digital
Shalimar Paints & blockbuster films partner for festive home upgrades
Mumbai: Shalimar Paints, a prominent name in the Indian paint industry with over 120 years of legacy, has launched co-branded promotional videos for this festive season’s in-film promotions, focusing on home upgrades. This collaboration highlights premium products, Hero Emulsion and Zero Damp Advance, featured in films like Vicky Vidya Ka Woh Wala Video, Singham Again, and Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3.
As families celebrate special moments, Shalimar Paints encourages homeowners to transform their spaces with its product range. The Hero five-in-one Emulsion offers vibrant colors and washability, allowing homeowners to refresh their walls. Zero Damp Advance provides moisture protection, preventing dampness and fungal growth. Additionally, Xtra Tough ensures durability with a finish that withstands everyday wear and diverse weather conditions. The co-branded promotional videos effectively communicate a message of style and resilience, inspiring audiences to revamp their homes.
“Our partnership with these blockbuster films reflects our commitment to delivering superior standards and innovation that enhance living spaces,” said Shalimar Paints director of sales & marketing Kuldip Raina. “Our Hero five-in-one Emulsion provides a rich palette of colors with excellent coverage, whereas Zero Damp Advance keeps walls pristine and vibrant over time, and Xtra tough delivers a robust finish that withstands everyday wear and diverse weather conditions. This festive season, through these exciting partnerships, we invite you to discover our innovative range that promises to transform your spaces into havens of joy and warmth, capturing the true essence of home.”
As part of the home protect waterproofing range, Damp Advance enhances wall aesthetics and helps keep surfaces up to 10° cooler. It comes with a 12-year performance warranty and effectively addresses dampness, cracks, flaking, fungal growth, and efflorescence, ensuring walls remain appealing even in harsh conditions.
Hero five-in-one Emulsion features a range of vibrant colors, a high sheen finish, washability, stain resistance, Zero VOC content, and anti-viral properties. This combination ensures durability and a health-conscious living environment. The Hero range has quickly become a top choice for consumers seeking quality, affordable paint solutions.
Xtra Tough is a premium emulsion utilizing advanced pure acrylic technology with a silicone additive for durability. It withstands extreme weather and maintains its appearance over time. Eco-friendly and free from harmful additives like lead and mercury, it provides a safe, long-lasting solution for both interiors and exteriors, emphasising sustainability.
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.
