MAM
BUDX is all set to enthrall hyderabad with an epic music and cultural experience
MUMBAI: Budweiser Experiences is back with another session of its much celebrated programme, BUDX and will for the first time bring the exhilarating experience to music enthusiasts in Hyderabad.Following the recently concluded Bangalore edition, BUDXHYD is slated for 13th September at Prism Club & Kitchen,and will unite tastemakers, international talent and fans through energizing workshops, masterclasses and live programming. It will continue to shine a light on the emerging music culture, keeping at its core the development and collaboration of artists in diverse genres – ranging from hip-hop to techno.
The dynamic Hyderabad soundscape serves as a great backdrop and BUDX will bring an eclectic line-up of artists to the city. The festival, divided into two stages, will offer a perfectamalgamation of what the city loves while introducing the audience to an array of freshsounds. BUDXHYDwill showcasea collaborative set curated by DIVINE and artists from his own label, GULLY GANG,D’Evil, Aavrutti, Shah Rule, JD and DJ Proof. The stage will also host explosive sets by home-grown artists – Seedhe Maut x Sez On The Beat and OX7GEN, a perfect alchemy of hip-hop and electronic music. International sensationTruncate will revel music enthusiasts withdeep, raw techno and house. Brewing a kaleidoscope of sounds, the event will also feature Lifafa and dotdat.
Since its inception, BUDX has aimed to sparkconversations around importantdevelopments in the realmof music and culture.
Commenting on this, Kartikeya Sharma, Vice President Marketing – SouthAsia, AB InBev opined,“We are thrilled to kick-start the forthcoming edition of BUDX in Hyderabad. With the emerging music scene in the city, consumers have grown to enjoy a diverse music palette, discovering and exploring new and fresh sounds. This very understanding shapes our efforts and through BUDX, we always strive to create a unique, immersive cultural experience for music enthusiasts and offer fresh talent with the right opportunities and platforms. The objective is to energise artists to seize opportunities that are not only self-empowering but also help grow the music scene as a whole. We are confident that with every new city we take BUDX to, we will continue our journey to build a community of music evangelists and enthusiasts.”
Grab your tickets now on bookmyshow.com!
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.
