MAM
Vidyuth Bhandary named studio head of Dice Media
Mumbai: Strengthening its key leadership team further, Pocket Aces, a homegrown digital media entertainment company has announced the elevation of Vidyuth Bhandary to the studio head, Dice Media.
Bhandary joined Pocket Aces in 2020 as vice president, content production and design, where he spearheaded and scaled up the company’s in-house production and post-production capabilities. In his new capacity, he will lead the expansion of Dice Media, drive strategy, P&L and OTT relationships, said the company in a statement.
The natural progression to this larger role is a credit to his strategic leadership, successfully scaling up Pocket Aces’ content production and post-production capabilities, it added.
“We are scaling up Dice Media to become one of the most highly acclaimed long-form studios in the country. We are working on shows across OTT platforms, genres, languages and formats – you will see Hindi dramas, regional language shows, audio shows, and very soon – movies coming from us,” said Pocket Aces co-founder and CEO Aditi Srivastav. “I am excited to see Vidyuth take up the Studio Head role and work with our excellent team to spearhead Dice Media into this next phase of growth.”
With over two decades of deep experience in media & entertainment, Bhandary has held key leadership roles with some of the largest media conglomerates like Star India, The Times Group, Fremantlemedia Asia, Turner International India, Reliance Entertainment, and MX Player.
“Having successfully established ourselves in the young adult segment with differentiated & unique offerings, we at Dice Media are now focused on developing larger shows with leading OTT platforms, across genres, languages, formats and borders,” stated Vidyuth Bhandary. “In parallel, we will work closely with international content companies to deliver on our promise of solving boredom by bringing the most-watched content across the world to our viewers.
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.
