MAM
Ajeeta Bharadwaj joins Wondrlab as chief strategy officer
NEW DELHI: Platform-first startup Wondrlab has appointed Ajeeta Bharadwaj as chief strategy officer. Bharadwaj will be based out of Mumbai and will oversee the entire strategic planning function at the agency. She will report to Wondrlab co-founder and managing partner – content platform Rakesh Hinduja.
Bharadwaj’s mandate at Wondrlab involves taking a deep dive into human journeys via a platform-first lens. She will leverage her cross-category experience of brand insights and human behaviour to create world-class go-to-market strategies for clients’ businesses.
Rakesh Hinduja said, “I can think of no one better to lead Wondrlab’s strategy piece than Ajeeta. We have worked together extensively and I know the excellent thinking that she can bring to the table. Ajeeta isn’t just a strategist, but someone who deep dives into a client’s business to create contemporary solutions. I am confident that she will harness all her knowledge and experience at Wondrlab to help clients win strategically.”
In a career spanning 20 years, Bharadwaj has worked with the Publicis network for 18 years and led the strategic planning function for Leo Burnett Mumbai before moving on. She was also the national planning director at Wunderman Thompson.
“There is an infectious energy about Wondrlab and I look forward to adding to it. I have worked with Saurabh, Rakesh and Vandana and have seen the transformational solutions that came out of this collaboration. I also find the focus on platform-first thinking, extremely relevant. As consumers, we use different platforms differently and adding this understanding to strategy can get the brand entrenched better in the purchase process. It is an exciting vision and the attempt will be to consistently look for data-backed, dynamic solutions that deliver on this,” she said.
Apart from creating an agile planning team that brought home metals from Effies, Cannes, Spikes, and WARC Strategy Awards, Bharadwaj was also a global champion of the Leo Burnett branding system ‘Humankind’ and is expected to drive tools and data-based planning culture in the agency.
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.
