MAM
Dinesh Vijan’s Angrezi Medium starring Irrfan, Kareen Kapoor Khan and Radhika Madan shakes hands with India’s most trusted University Admissions Brand, Leverage Edu
MUMBAI: After a scintillating performance at the box office with comedy-drama – Hindi Medium, Dinesh Vijan is back with the much-awaited sequel to the movie that is set to release on 13th March this year. With its former counterpart ringing the bells of the Filmfare Awards bagging awards for both Best Film and Best Actor for Irrfan, Angrezi Medium definitely has a huge fan base to dazzle.
On the lines of news of the release promotions, New-Delhi headquartered University Admissions company – Leverage Edu has joined hands with the movie as its Official Education Partner. “This is the very first “Bollywood X LeverageEdu” partnership, and it just couldn’t have happened with a film more in-soul with our DNA than Angrezi Medium. It’s an honest and emotional story of an ambitious student, and her Dad – who go through many challenges, which is where we come in with a trusted brand that delivers transparency and success using easy-to-consume technology and a vast network of personality-matched mentors,” says Akshay Chaturvedi, Founder & CEO, Leverage Edu. He added, “We hope Indian families are motivated to take the leap for their children, and be able to help them become global citizens of tomorrow.”
The movie’s message aligns with the problem Leverage Edu is trying to solve in India. By providing Indian students with a Career Platform stacked with multiple workshops on Goal Clarity, University Shortlisting, Application Assistance and Education Loans, Leverage Edu aims to ensure that the Taru’s (portrayed by Radhika Madan) of the world have the right resources and mentors to guide them and the Father’s (portrayed by Irrfan) don’t have to knock a thousand doors to provide for their kids what they truly deserve, irrespective of financial or social status.
About Leverage Edu : Leverage Edu initially began as a higher education mentorship marketplace in Silicon Valley’s Draper University’s 2015 cohort by Akshay Chaturvedi, and formally launched as a company later in January 2017. The company is now a full stack university admissions player, using AI to help students work with best-matched mentors from around the world in personalized career workshops. Leverage Edu has demonstrated industry-leading student outcomes in the last three years, and now also helps students with value-added services like education loan, accommodation options, on-campus/ long-term mentoring, and more. It’s recently launched vertical Univalley.com partners with select universities across vetted courses and programs, to help students with an end-to-end curated discovery-to-dorm room journey across select regions globally.
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Abhay Duggal joins JioStar as director of Hindi GEC ad sales
The streaming giant brings in a seasoned revenue hand as the battle for Hindi television advertising heats up
MUMBAI: Abhay Duggal has a new desk, and JioStar has a new weapon. The media and entertainment veteran has joined JioStar as director of entertainment ad sales for Hindi general entertainment channels, adding 17 years of hard-won revenue experience to one of India’s most powerful broadcasting operations.
Duggal is no stranger to big portfolios or bruising markets. Before joining JioStar, he spent a brief stint at Republic World as deputy general manager and north regional head for ad sales. Before that, he put in three years at Enterr10 Television, where he ran the north region for Dangal TV and Dangal 2, two of India’s leading free-to-air Hindi channels. The north alone accounted for more than 50 per cent of total channel revenue on his watch, a number that tends to get attention in any sales meeting.
His longest stint was at Zee Entertainment Enterprises, where he spent over six years rising to associate director of sales. There he commanded the Hindi movies cluster across seven channels, owned more than half of north India’s revenue across flagship properties including Zee TV and &TV, and closed marquee sponsorships across the Indian Premier League, Zee Rishtey Awards and Dance India Dance. He also handled monetisation for the English movies and entertainment cluster and the global news channel WION, a portfolio that would stretch most sales teams twice his size.
Earlier in his career Duggal closed what was then a Rs 3 crore single deal at Reliance Broadcast Network, one of the largest in Indian radio at the time, before that he helped launch and monetise JAINHITS, India’s first HITS-based cable and satellite platform.
His edge, by his own account, lies in marrying data and instinct: translating audience trends, inventory signals and client demands into long-term partnerships built on cost-per-rating-point discipline rather than short-term deal chasing. In a media landscape being reshaped by streaming, fragmented attention and AI-driven advertising, that kind of rigour is increasingly rare and increasingly valuable.
JioStar, which blends the scale of Reliance’s Jio platform with the content firepower of Star, is doubling down on its advertising business at precisely the moment the Hindi GEC market is getting more competitive. Bringing in someone who has spent nearly two decades doing exactly this, across some of India’s most watched channels, is a pointed statement of intent. Duggal has spent his career turning audiences into revenue. JioStar is clearly betting he can do it again, and bigger.
