MAM
The Abby council appoints three international jury chairs for Abbys 2022
Mumbai: The Abby Awards Governing Council on Monday announced three names from the global advertising industry as jury chairs. This year, industry members Menno Kluin, Aricio Fortes, and Myra Nussbaum will be judging Abbys 2022.
Menno Kluin is the chief creative officer of dentsu US with a string of big awards to his credit. Menno won the coveted ‘Creative Person of the Year 2021’ by US Campaign.com for his exceptional track record of creative success. His accolades include winning the ‘Most awarded Art Director Worldwide,’ ‘Agency of the Year at Cannes,’ ‘Grand Prix,’ and ‘One Show’s Best in Discipline for Digital Craft and Social Media,’ ‘Clio Agency of the Year,’ ‘ACD NY Agency of the Year,’ and ‘Young Guns Agency of the Year.’ Menno leads the creative output of three dentsu agencies – 360i, dentsuMB, and Isobar.
BBDO China chief creative officer Aricio Fortes is also going to be jury chair at Abbys 2022. Aricio has won 44 Cannes Lions so far and he is still counting. He has won the Cannes Lion Agency of the Year four times for DM9DDB Brazil and Ogilvy Brazil in the past. Twenty of Aricio’s campaigns have won Lions and Pencils for large global brands McDonald’s, Procter & Gamble, Walmart, Johnson & Johnson, IBM, FedEx, Pinterest, LEGO, and Mattel.
Havas Chicago president and chief creative officer Myra Nussbaum is the third member of the jury chairs of Abbys 2022. Myra’s work for Valspar, which involved helping colourblind see colour for the first time, went on to win top honours at Cannes, One Show, and D&AD. Voted by Adweek as among the Top 30 Creative People in the world, Myra’s work has created emotional connections while significantly impacting business for such brands as Mars, KFC, Molson Coors, SC Johnson, Dow, and Ford.
“We are very fortunate to have Menno, Aricio and Myra chair some of the leading categories of ABBYs this year,” Abby Awards Governing Council’s Ajay Chandwani said. “All are contemporary creative superstars of our times and their versatility of being equally at home with traditional advertising and digital craft and social media makes them special advertising personalities.”
“We are thrilled to have heavyweights come on board to chair this year’s Abbys awards,” stated Abby Awards Governing Council 2022 chairman and The Ad Club VP Rana Barua. “Our intent is to have world-class quality and inputs with The One Show, and has awarded and recognised international jury is just a start of a journey which will allow Indian advertising to reach the global standard of effectiveness and quality. “
“We are indeed grateful to One Show for having partnered with the Ad Club to take ABBYs judging to the global level,” added The Ad Club president Partha Sinha.
The deadline for submission of entries has been extended until 1 April, according to the statement.
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.
