MAM
Havas Worldwide India ropes in Nikhil Guha & Neeraj Toor as group creative directors
Mumbai: Havas Worldwide India, the creative arm of Havas Group India, has further strengthened its creative team with the appointment of Nikhil Guha and Neeraj Toor as group creative directors.
The agency recently announced the appointment of Anupama Ramaswamy as its chief creative officer. The two new appointments demonstrate Havas Worldwide India’s commitment to consistently strengthening its team to make a more meaningful difference to its clients, said the agency in a statement.
Both Nikhil and Neeraj will report to Anupama, who will join the agency in October 2022.
Speaking about the appointments, Havas Group India chairman and chief creative officer Bobby Pawar said, “Nikhil and Neeraj embody the kind of creatives who are perfect for what we’re building—a brand-thinking-led, digital-first creative company. Both are strong idea people who are very comfortable with the craft and nuances of traditional and non-traditional media. Also, it doesn’t hurt that they are fun to hang out with. I’m sure they, along with their teams, will help Anupama achieve her goal of putting out great work.”
With over 14 years of experience, Nikhil joins Havas Worldwide India from McCann Worldgroup. This is Nikhil’s second stint with the agency; he has also worked with Publicis India and Contract Advertising in the past. Over the course of his career, he has worked on well-known brands such as Nescafe, Zomato, Maggi, SpiceJet, MakeMyTrip, and Nokia, to name a few. His work has also received a plethora of global and local awards, including a Bronze Lion at Cannes Lions, a Gold and Grand Prix at the APAC Effies, as well as numerous Effies and Abbys. In fact, his campaign “No Child Bride” for Child Survival India won Havas Worldwide India a Bronze metal at Cannes Lions in 2014.
Neeraj, who has over 13 years of experience, is a digital specialist and has worked in agencies including Dentsu Webchutney and Cheil India in the past. He has worked on leading brands including Samsung, Adidas, Canon, PVR, Adani, and Maruti Suzuki, among others. He was responsible for launching pharmacy brand Zeno Health in Mumbai and Pune with a campaign called Rahat ki Goli. He has won numerous awards for his work, including DMA Asia Echo Awards and the Abbys. He joins Havas Worldwide from Dentsu Impact.
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.
