MAM
Boomer brings back the pop with new lollipops and a swagger-filled Bumrah twist
MUMBAI: For over three decades, Boomer has ruled India’s chewing gum turf with its iconic elasticity and fruitiness. Now, the bubble bursts into a stick. On 19 May 2025, Mars Wrigley India launched Boomer Lollipop, a bold foray into the Rs 800 crore lollipop market, aiming to inject a fresh dose of fun, relevance and confidence into a category often dismissed as childish.
The new Boomer Lollipop comes in three punchy flavours — Strawberry, Orange, and Watermelon — crafted to appeal to Gen Z’s expressive spirit. The brand is repositioning the segment as not just a kiddie indulgence but a confident snack that oozes individuality. Tapping into this ethos is cricket star Jasprit Bumrah, whose calm swagger and unflappable poise front the brand’s campaign.
The high-octane TV commercial, now live, opens on a cricket field. A young player stands alone, pressured by a hostile gang. Enter Boomer Lollipop. With a pop and a bite, his confidence flips the script, changing the game. Narrated by Bumrah in his trademark cool, the ad delivers a clear message: your swag speaks when you hold a Boomer.
“Boomer has stood for everything fun and strawberry at its core, for several generations. We are expanding this equity to the fast-growing segment of lollipops. Accompanying a strong launch in trade, we have Jasprit Bumrah lending his brand of fun and swag to Boomer Lollipop. The creative campaign crafted with DDB and Essence Mediacom projects the swag and attitude associated with Lollipops but perhaps lost over the last decade. From the factory to trade and in the media, our associates have added special touches to make this new launch truly unique and carve a space for Boomer at front of store and in people’s minds”, said Mars Wrigley India CMO Nikhil Rao.
DDB Mudra Group CCO Rahul Mathew added, “It’s always great when you get to work on a brand with such a strong memory structure and a brand ambassador whose name also has an effortless connect to the brand. What we now had to do is bring it all together to give a new attitude to Boomer’s newest format – Lollipop.”
The lollipops are being manufactured locally at Mars Wrigley’s Baddi facility, reinforcing the company’s commitment to innovation from within India. With a national rollout underway, Boomer Lollipop marks a flavourful, cheeky new chapter in the brand’s long-standing legacy.
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.
