MAM
Havas Worldwide India announces senior appointments: Govind Agarwal named VP – account management
Mumbai: Havas Worldwide India, the creative arm of Havas Group India, has strengthened its strategy and account planning teams across Mumbai and Delhi offices with three key appointments. Govind Agarwal has joined Havas Worldwide Mumbai as vice president, account management. Sulagna Chanda has been appointed as associate vice president – Strategic Planning, and Neha Gupta has joined as associate vice president – Client Servicing.
Both Chanda and Gupta will work out of Havas Worldwide Delhi. These appointments will help strengthen the agency’s strategy and business teams and further drive the specialist services for which Havas Worldwide India is now known, stated the agency.
Havas Worldwide India managing director Manas Lahiri said, “Over the last two years, we have garnered exponential growth through valuable partnerships and added several marquee brands to our ever-expanding portfolio of traditional as well as new-age clients.”
“In our constant endeavour and commitment to make a meaningful difference, we continue to invest in strengthening our teams. With Govind, Sulagna and Neha on board, I’m confident we will further scale up our strategic planning capabilities and client relationships,” he added.
With over 16 years of experience, Agarwal has managed some of the biggest brands across key sectors such as FMCG, banking, fashion, beauty, entertainment, and more. His strengths include business growth and lending his expertise to extend marketing campaign ideas across digital, social, direct and on-ground stages. Over the years, he has managed brands including Medimix, Inox, Kotak Life Insurance, Godrej, Danone, Skoda Auto, and Kellogg’s, among others.
Over her 12-year-long career, Chanda has built her core strengths in brand strategy, consumer insights and leading agencies to establish effective marketing solutions. Some key accounts that she has managed through her career include The Times of India, ITC Hotels, Unilever, GSK, Disney and more.
Gupta is a communication management specialist with over 13 years of experience in handling brands, including Sony, Chicco, Dabur, Chyawanprash, MasterCard, Reebok, Whirlpool, ESPN STAR Sports, ITC Hotels, and more.
Havas Worldwide India has been consolidating its senior leadership team in recent years. The agency’s business model has assisted the agency in building a strong client roster across its Mumbai and Delhi offices, resulting in a growth of more than 30 per cent across both offices, claimed the agency.
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.
