MAM
Pizza Hut starts contactless takeaway across stores in India
MUMBAI: As social distancing becomes the new norm, Pizza Hut, India’s most trusted and loved pizza brand, will now offer contactless takeaway across all operational stores in India. The company will continue its oven-to-home contactless delivery facility as well, which has been functioning throughout the lockdown.
With contactless takeaway, Pizza Hut is ensuring the maximum level of safety and hygiene for consumers who choose to pick-up their order from the store. Customers just need to simply place orders on the Pizza Hut app, m-site, website or via the menu board in stores. Food is then baked at over 240 degree Celsius for a minimum of six minutes to eliminate all viruses and bacteria and packed piping hot straight from the oven into disinfected boxes. The container is then sealed with tamper-proof stickers to ensure that only the consumer is able to touch the meal inside. The staff thereafter places the order on a designated pre-sanitized table from where the customers can pick up their orders and exit. No direct contact is established at any point in this process, ensuring the safety of customers and employees.
Pizza Hut India marketing director Neha said, “With the easing of lockdown norms, more people will be out and about for work and will need access to safe and hygienic food. Our Contactless Takeaway service ensures that customers can pick-up their order while on-the-go, in an easy and fast manner, without compromising on their safety. It is the need of the hour and we are happy to have responded quickly by starting this service in India.”
Since the start of the pandemic, Pizza Hut has upgraded all its existing stringent safety and hygiene processes across India. The brand has implemented all regulatory protocols and guidelines issued from time to time by the government, WHO and FSSAI such as thermal screening of employees and visitors, mandatory use of face masks and gloves, washing hands every 30 minutes and disinfecting all kitchen surfaces, food packing boxes, delivery bags and bikes. The brand has been following a Contactless Delivery system, wherein the Pizza Hut delivery executive places the packed food on a clean surface, near the doorstep of the customer and waits at a distance of six feet to make sure that the customer has picked up the order.
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.
