MAM
Weekend Unwind with: Hotstuff Medialabs chief creative officer Terence D’souza
Mumbai: With another weekend upon us, IndianTelevision.com rolls over to the next edition of fun snippets that peek into the mind of a corporate executive. This week, sharing his musings with us we have the chief creative officer of Hotstuff Medialabs, Terence D’souza.
An advertising professional, creative director, filmmaker, writer, musician, and brand strategist- all rolled into one, Terence pursued a career in finance before realising his true calling was in advertising. He then switched over from Auditing to Copywriting in 2012, by joining Hotstuff. Here, he channelled his finance acumen into transforming communication for most BFSI brands, and was instrumental in introducing off-beat jingles and genres of communicating financial information through his campaigns. He specialised in investor education drives, working very closely with the mutual fund industry and more than 50+ brands, including ICICI Prudential MF, Edelweiss MF, Kotak Life Insurance, SBI Life Insurance, Axis, SUD Life, HDFC Ergo, HDFC Life, IIFL Group and UTI Mutual Fund to name a few.
So here goes…
– Your mantra for life
Choose happiness. Everything else will follow.
-A book you are currently reading / plan to read
The Silmarillion by JRR Tolkien. (Hope to finish it before the Rings of Power starts streaming on Prime).
-Your fitness mantra, especially during the pandemic
I choose sports over the gym, and play Badminton- Properly, I mean, with the right technique on courts. It helps me be more agile.
-Your comfort food
Dal, rice, and rava fried fish- especially when it rains.
-When the chips are down a quote/ philosophy that keeps you going
The poem Invictus by William Henley, especially the last verse which goes, “It matters not how strait the gate, how charged with punishments the scroll, I am the Master of my fate, I am the Captain of my Soul.”
-Your guilty pleasure
Loud and ultra-macho action movies from the 80s.
-When was the last time you tried something new?
Tried mint flavoured coffee for the first time a week ago. Felt like I was brushing my teeth with coffee.
-A life lesson you learnt the hard way
If you don’t protect your work as you would your own children, someone else will raise them.
-What gets you excited about life?
The fact that an entire generation of kids is being introduced to 80s music and pop-culture once more, gives me hope.
-What’s on top of your bucket list?
Winning an Oscar for Best Director.
-If you could give one piece of advice to your younger self, what would it be?
Travel more, by yourself. You will discover a side of you that is beautiful.
-One thing you would most like to change about the world
Only educated citizens with a proper psych evaluation and certified cognitive skills should be given a license to vote in every election.
-An activity that keeps you motivated / charged during tough times
Talking to the ones closest to me, and realising that no matter how bad it gets, I am still the hero of their story and they believe I can win.
-What lifts your spirits when life gets you down?
I get by with a little help from my friends.
-Your go-to stress buster
Sunday jam sessions with my band Kehkasha. It’s my anesthesia.
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.
