MAM
Baba Ka Dhaba owner files case against YouTuber who put him in limelight
NEW DELHI: Kanta Prasad (80), who runs the now-famous Baba Ka Dhaba in south Delhi, has filed a complaint against YouTuber influencer and food blogger Gaurav Wasan for allegedly misappropriating funds that were raised to help their business.
Prasad and his food stall became the talk of the town when Wasan shot a video of him tearfully recounting his struggle to keep the business running since the lockdown. The video was shared across social media platforms and people came out in droves to support #BabaKaDhaba.
Now, in his complaint Prasad has alleged that Gaurav Wasan shot his video and posted it online, asking the public on social media to donate money to the eatery owner.
Prasad also claimed that Wasan "intentionally and deliberately shared only his and his family and friends’ bank details and mobile numbers with the donors and collected a huge amount of donation through different modes of payments without providing any information to him.”
DCP (south) Atul Kumar Thakur said, “We received the complaint yesterday and are enquiring into it.” No FIR has been registered yet.
On his part, Wasan has denied the allegations and said he transferred all the money into Prasad’s account: “When I shot the video, I didn’t know it would become this big. I didn’t want people to harass Baba (Prasad) so I shared my bank details…” The food blogger shared three receipts of the transactions, all dated 27 October — two cheques of Rs 1,00,000 and Rs 2,33,000 and one receipt of bank payment of Rs 45,000. He said this was the amount of money collected in three days. Wasan also put up a bank statement on Facebook in which the total money credited in the three days is around Rs 3.5 lakh.
Asked about the other two transactions, Prasad said he hasn’t been able to check his account as he doesn’t carry his phone.
This turn of events has created quite a stir, with some questioning Wasan’s motivations, and others berating Prasad for turning on his benefactor. While some YouTubers accused Wasan of receiving Rs 20-25 lakh in donations, Wasan has strongly refuted it. “We have initiated legal action against the YouTubers,” he said.
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.
