MAM
Isobar India taps Gurjot Shah Singh to drive media services
Mumbai: Isobar, the creative agency from the house of dentsu India has announced the appointment of Gurjot Shah Singh as executive vice president (EVP) – media.
In his new role, Gurjot will be responsible for strengthening the media services of the agency. He will also be driving the growth of media services for Isobar India group jointly with WATConsult AVP media and strategy Shanu Jain, said the statement.
“Creative use of media is the key to success in advertising and Gurjot echoes the same in his work,” said Isobar India group CEO Heeru Dingra. “He comes with extensive experience in the industry and has invaluable knowledge in his domain. Moreover, he brings with him the talented team from Webchutney, those who have been instrumental in bagging multiple awards internationally. I am looking forward to having him build on the exciting and vast roster of brands that we manage at Isobar.”
“The next leg of Isobar’s journey is all about providing differentiated experiences to the consumers. Media and creative will have to work hand in hand to provide such experience. Gurjot, with his experience, will be able to take Isobar to new heights in this regard. I look forward to working with Gurjot to not just provide a great solution to our clients, but also to grow the Isobar business in the coming days,” added Isobar India managing partner Rahul Vengalil.
Over the last decade, Gurjot has worked on several award-winning campaigns and consulted over 250 brands including Ather Energy, Honda bikes, Uber, Max life insurance, IndusInd Bank, Whirlpool, Canon, Flipkart, Under Armour, British council, Air India, Sony Pictures, to name a few.
“With the enhanced mandate, my team and I will further build on Isobar’s existing strengths and capabilities,” said Gurjot on his new role. “In this new avatar, we’re going to be very pragmatic about what the alchemy of creative, media and technology is going to bring. I am excited to partner with some of the best talents in dentsu to drive a wider change in the way brands connect with audiences.”
It is pertinent to note here that dentsu Creative group India has centralised its digital media services across all its agencies and capabilities under the Isobar India group. The agencies under dentsu Creative group India include dentsu Webchutney, Taproot dentsu, WATConsult, Perfect Relations, Isobar, dentsu One, dentsuMB (earlier Dentsu India) and dentsu Impact.
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.
