MAM
The Script Room completes three years; plans original web series
Mumbai: Ad agency The Script Room has completed three years and a hundred ad films. Founded by Rajesh Ramaswamy and Ayyappan Raj in 2019, the agency has been offering content strategies, script writing and production to support clients.
The Script Room bagged its first project in April 2019 for Netflix India, a campaign around one of its originals “Selection Day.” Nine films were shot in one night. The campaign won the fledgling company the ‘Best Digital Creative Award’ at Star Re-Imagine awards. Their second campaign with a series of ten ads titled ‘So, what are you watching?’ for Netflix went on air during the World Cup and was an Effie Finalist. Post that The Script Room has worked with brands like OYO, Chumbak, Vedantu, Bumble, PhonePe, Great Learning, CoinSwitch, My11Circle, RummyCircle, PaperBoat and many more. Many of the films are popular and have won prestigious awards like Kyoorius and Abbys.
The young bespoke advertising outfit is modelled as a writers’ room and has worked with a diverse portfolio of clients.
“Over the three years, we’ve managed to run a smart, clean, cheerful set-up,” said The Script Room co-founder Ayyappan Raj. “Maintain a good work-life balance, avoid being factory-fied, encourage individuals to pursue whatever they want personally, good food, good drinks, bad jokes… simple joys and general happiness. Thanks to every single person who’s helped us do this.”
“This year and the coming years we are going after two things, first is something that’s long overdue, developing our own The Script Room Original – a new web-series that’s in the final stages of writing. Second is creating a working model of writers room for advertising, where we engage with writers outside of TSR. This we piloted a few months back and it’s coming about quite well,” he added.
“Like what one expects from a good movie script, we wouldn’t want The Script Room journey, our plot line, to lag or meander. Anything and everything that we’re doing is to progress the story further, while adding depth and colour,” he further said.
“These three years has been quite a ride. Honestly, we hadn’t planned it out. In fact, we just decided to go with the flow,” said The Script Room co-founder Rajesh Ramaswamy. “We’ve met a lot of interesting people along the way. Enjoyed a lot of goodwill, faith and trust. A lot of friends cheered us along. A lot of clients embraced this model. Though we didn’t have a retainer model, they’ve been good enough to return. That’s encouraging. They’ve also been kind enough to spread a good word about us.”
Ramaswamy added, “We’ve been clear that we want to collaborate with as many interesting people as possible. So, we’ve worked with a lot of established directors, and also a lot of new young talent. We keep engaging and meeting all kinds of writers from all fields with different sensibilities. People have given us books to read that they are working on. Some just come and jam with us on a story idea. Some come and sing us songs or recite shayari. All just for love. With no great agenda. We love this process and would always want to keep that alive. That’s our only trip.”
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.
