MAM
Audible inks deal with rajpal & sons, expanding into hindi audio books
Mumbai: Further cementing its commitment to break barriers of all kinds in order for a variety of stories to reach the largest audience possible, Audible today announced an exclusive deal with Rajpal & Sons. The world’s largest audiobooks platform joins hands with one of India’s oldest and largest literary Hindi publishers, thus giving consumers access to over 230 titles across genres, such as Hindi classic and contemporary literature, self-development, poetry and translations. The catalogue includes over 150 bestsellers, including titles with translations to English, as well as Hindi and Urdu titles.
The deal marks a milestone in Audible’s India journey, which launched in 2018 and has expanded to over 200,000 titles, with over 700 Audible-exclusive deals with Indian authors. This strategic move will allow their consumers to not only access audiobooks in multiple languages, but also further showcases Audible’s ability to understand and cater to the diverse Indian market.
While a robust slate of bestselling authors like Divya Prakash Dubey, Anand Neelakantan and Anu Singh is already available on the service, this partnership will further expand this roster to include classic literary authors like Vishnu S. Khandekar, Khushwant Singh, R.K.Narayan and contemporary authors like Ashok Kumar Pandey, Manisha Kulshreshta, Bhagwant Anmol. In addition, the company recently launched the India-only app, Audible Suno, which provides free access to over 60 exclusive audio shows narrated by India’s most famous voices.
Rajpal & Sons, a publisher of timeless classics, is also been known for their translations of both Indian and international literature, including the Hindi translation of the award-winning title Rue De Boutique Obscure (English translation: Missing Person) by Nobel Prize winning author Patrick Modiano. Some of the popular Hindi titles include Kurukshetra by Dinkar and Meri Priya Kahaniyaan by Amrita Pritam, Lokpriya Shayar Aur Unki Shayari series by Prakash Pandit, Ashadh Ka Ek Din by Mohan Rakesh and Kitne Pakistan by Kamleshwar. This diverse offering will allow Indian listeners to choose the book they would like to experience, language no bar.
Additionally, Audible has signed exclusive Hindi titles from Manjul Publications, the leader in the self-development space, with translations of books such The Power of Your Subconscious Mind by Joseph Murphy and Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari, , The Answer (Allan and Barbara Pease), Tipping Point (Malcolm Gladwell) in the pipeline.
Some of the books being translated exclusively for Audible include Hindi translations of international bestselling titles like The Alchemist and Adultery by Paulo Coelho.
Audible country head Shailesh Sawlani stated, “We are very excited about our partnership with Rajpal & Sons, an Indian publishing company with a global legacy. We believe that it will enable our customers to access a whole new world of stories in Hindi. Not only do these include very popular and much loved stories written in Hindi but also translations of popular English works, thus providing easy and convenient access to our non-English readers. At Audible we always keep the customer at the forefront of all our initiatives and I am confident about this association going a long way in making sure we continue delighting our customers.”
Rajpal & Sons partner Pranav Johri said, “We are always looking for new ways for Indian stories which reflect our rich culture to a global audience, and the partnership with Audible, a pioneer in its space, allows us to do just that. Indian readers can now expect distinctive fiction and non-fiction audiobooks on Audible’s high-quality, user-friendly app. Our endeavor is always to make sure content reaches a wider audience in terms of geographical spread and their preference to consume content over different mediums like print, digital and audio. Our association with Audible is a significant step in that direction.”
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.
