MAM
Publicis In-Motion appoints Shonali Sharma as head of Arc Worldwide’s Delhi office
Mumbai: Publicis In-Motion on Monday announced the appointment of Shonali Sharma as head of Arc Worldwide’s Delhi office.
“Shonali will head an adept team of experts and focus on making Arc Worldwide a preferred partner for brands looking to ace their customer connect across channels and platforms,” said the statement. Shonali will closely work with the India leadership team of Arc worldwide helmed by Pravin Vadhera.
Shonali brings with her eighteen years of experience in experiential marketing, brand development, sports marketing, integrated marketing and communication. In the past, she has worked with agencies like Candid Marketing Services, Ogilvy Action, Cheil Communications, along with managing the PGAI Tour and launching Delhi Daredevils at the IPL. She has worked across a range of brands from telecom (Idea, Vodafone, Motorola), FMCG (Pepsi, Cadbury’s, Revlon, Samsung) and media (National Geographic, Discovery Networks) to technology (Microsoft, Lenovo) and pharma (Novartis) amongst others. Her work has earned her numerous awards.
“In 2022, Publicis In-Motion is looking at scaling up in a big way,” said Publicis In-Motion head Praveen Vadhera. “I am thrilled to have Shonali on board. She brings with her expansive experience and keen insight into future trends. I am excited about the value we can create for our clients with her expertise.”
“I am excited to be a part of Arc’s continued success in India,” said Shonali Sharma. “Parveen has always been a great visionary and the team in India has an eclectic mix in terms of skill sets and an attractive client portfolio across our group companies. I want to leverage my expertise and creativity to complement these skills and help clients further unlock their potential through innovative and effective experiential marketing strategies.”
A part of Publicis Groupe India, Publicis In-Motion is a specialist entity focused on building brands by creating experiences and engagement with consumers while they are on the move. It has a team of 150 professionals and its expertise lies in crafting ideas that move people to like, share, participate, advocate and explore brands, thereby moving them to purchase.
Arc Worldwide specialises in brand activation, experiential engagement and shopper marketing. In India, Arc has been the partner of choice for leading brands like Diageo, Acko, Airtel, Isuzu, and HP to name a few. Most recently the team executed the launch of Airtel’s 5G experience with the recreation of in-stadia experience of Kapil Dev’s legendary 175 run innings from the 1983 Cricket World Cup with India’s first live 5G powered hologram.
Shonali is deeply passionate about the impact of art on society’s culture and has launched a label called ‘Breathe’ – a unique initiative to make art more accessible in everyday life thereby supporting local artists. ‘Breathe’ brings together works of various artists in the form of soulful, ethical merchandise – apparel, stationery and home décor.
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.
