MAM
Dineout Unveils India’s Virtual Cookoff ‘Home Masterchef’ With Celebrity Judges
The extended countrywide lockdown has made cooking restaurant-style food at home the most common trend in households across the country. With millions actively flaunting their newly found culinary skills across social media, India’s largest dining out and restaurant tech platform, Dineout has announced the launch of the country’s first virtual cookoff with celebrity chefs. The contest would see participants upload home-cooked dishes & recipes to stand a chance to win exciting prizes every week.
Since restaurants across India have been closed for the last 2 months, Dineout has been engaging with its users promoting “Dineout later, stay home now” as the key message to practice social distancing. Home Masterchef is their initiative focused on keeping their 5M user base active on the app and giving them a platform to flaunt their culinary skills via their unique feature – Dineout Stories. Cooking shows have always been an engaging format with a nation full of foodies, and a virtual cooking challenge like this will help Dineout to connect with the existing and new users in these trying times.
Taking cues from digital trends, Dineout has launched the campaign by creating a video on the very popular social media format called #DontRushChallange. Watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhktOQAHg_4
Boasting of an illustrious panel of celebrity judges including Gourmet Passport’s Founder Rocky Mohan and celebrity chef Sabyasachi Gorai aka Chef Saby, this online contest live until 11th June 2020 would see food enthusiasts uploading photos & videos of their most creative & delicious home recipes using the Dineout app on https://www.dineout.co.in/home-masterchef. The bumper prize winners with the highest skills & creativity would win Redmi 8 smartphones, Amazon Echo devices, Mi Bluetooth earphones and gift vouchers from Cult.Fit, Rebel Foods, and Udemy among others.
Ankit Mehrotra, Co-founder & CEO – Dineout said, “It is important for brands to stay relevant to their audience in these challenging times. The COVID-19 lockdown and a lack of socialising with friends & family including visits to our favorite restaurants has triggered our nation’s culinary skills in more ways than one. Our key insight was that from distressed dads to young couples to scrappy bachelors living away from home, people are trying their hand at cooking their favorite dishes and going the extra mile by creating new recipes. The sheer range of culinary creativity on display across social media is heartening. In our effort to tip our hats to these quarantined masterminds making the most of their time at home, we have launched the country’s first ever virtual cookoff ‘Home Masterchef’ that will give a platform to nurture this growing talent.”
"Over the past 60 days, I have noticed that the Gen Z and millennial population living away from home yearning for ‘ghar ka khaana’, it was surprising to see them own up to the challenge. Cooking up a storm in their kitchens and flaunt their achievements on their social media with #toughlife and #homechefsforlife hashtags. Our Home Masterchef contest is the country’s biggest virtual platform for all those who once disliked entering the kitchen but are now ruling it to showcase their skills and lay claim to this coveted title that they have so rightfully earned for themselves”, Mr. Rocky Mohan, Founder & Mentor of Gourmet Passport 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.
