Ad Campaigns
Sony MAX kicks off celebrations for landmark 20 years of entertaining movie lovers
MUMBAI: Sony MAX, India’s leading premiere Hindi movie channel from Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN), has created a benchmark by becoming the only channel across genres, to sustain a long-standing leadership stint for 148 weeks in a row. To mark this milestone and kick-start the celebration of 20 glorious years of entertaining movie lovers in India, Sony MAX has rolled out its latest TV campaign highlighting its brand essence ‘Deewana Bana De’.
The campaign – Yeh Hai Desh Ki Deewangi celebrates the spirit of millions of cinema fans whose passion and enthusiasm for movies make them special and larger than life. The TVC, which first aired at 20:20 on 20 July 2019, marks the launch of an elaborate marketing blitzkrieg across multiple touchpoints as a run-up to the special day in October 2019.
The latest TVC, the first of many initiatives in a three-month integrated campaign, “Yeh Desh ki Deewangi” relives classic golden moments from some of the most memorable movies of the past two decades. India has grown up on a staple feed of filmy masala, culture curry and cinematic servings dished up by Sony MAX. Gullu Gulati, the central character of the campaign, is the personification of the deewanapan of Sony MAX. The film follows Gullu Gulati, charting a 20-year journey of ‘Deewangi’ as he lives his life unabashedly imitating iconic scenes from movies and his favorite stars like Raj Aryan from Mohabattein, Raj from Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Bahhubali and Sultan.
The TVCs are conceptualised by DDB Mudra Group and shot by Footloose Films. To promote the campaign, the channel is engaging in a massive television plan across news, kids and regional channels for three weeks. The marketing plan also consists of a huge digital leg.
Sony SAB, PAL and Sony MAX movie cluster business head Neeraj Vyas said, “I am thrilled that Sony MAX which has been the undisputed leader, week on week for nearly three years, setting unparalleled standards in the industry, is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. For two decades, our robust library of films, path-breaking concepts, trend-setting programming has made the channel a strong favorite. We take pride in our deep audience insights and our ability to keep abreast of the dynamic and evolving movie viewing patterns that have helped us stay ahead of the curve. On this truly momentous occasion, we reiterate our commitment to offering only best-in-class entertainment.”
Sony SAB, PAL and Sony MAX movie cluster head, marketing and communications Vaishali Sharma commented, “As Sony MAX completes 20 years, we are extremely excited to present our viewers with the brand-new campaign that bring together our two memorable decades in ‘Yeh Hai Desh Ki Deewangi.’ Like Gullu Gulati, each one of us have grown up with the passion and madness for movies. He represents the heart of every Indian. With this milestone, we only promise to get better and bigger from here on while entertaining our audiences to their heart’s content.”
DDB Mudra Group national creative director Rahul Mathew said, “Indians and Hindi cinema are inseparable and when it comes to movies, it’s Sony MAX. The clear brief given to us was to conceptualise a campaign for the channel which has been the epitome of Bollywood movies for past 2 decades now. To capture the essence of this stature we had to recreate the ‘Deewangi’ that represents the emotions of the entire nation. Hence, Gullu was born whose ‘Deewangi’ for movies and Sony MAX resonates with every movie lover in India.”
NATIONAL: Amazon Ads has laid out a sharply tech-led vision for the advertising industry in 2026, arguing that artificial intelligence, streaming TV and creator partnerships will combine to turn brand building into a more precise, performance-driven business.
At the heart of the shift, the company says, is the fusion of AI with Amazon’s vast trove of shopping, browsing and streaming signals, allowing advertisers to move beyond blunt reach metrics to campaigns designed around real customer behaviour.
“The future of advertising is not about reaching more people, but the right people with messages that resonate,” said Amazon Ads India head and vice president Girish Prabhu. “By combining AI with deep customer insights, we help brands move from broadcasting campaigns to having meaningful conversations wherever audiences spend their time.”
One of the biggest changes, according to Amazon Ads, will be the collapse of the wall between media planning and creative development. Retail media, powered by first-party data, is increasingly shaping everything from brand discovery to final purchase, pushing marketers to design campaigns around audience insight rather than internal instinct.
AI is also moving from a support tool to a creative engine. Agentic AI, which automates and accelerates production, is expected to make high-quality creative accessible even to small businesses, compressing weeks of work into hours and giving challengers the ability to compete with larger brands on speed and scale.
Behind the scenes, AI-driven analytics will take on a bigger role in campaign optimisation, identifying patterns, spotting opportunities and recommending actions that would previously have required teams of analysts.
Streaming TV is another big battleground. With India’s video streaming audience now above 600 million and connected TV users at 129.2 million in 2025, advertisers are set to treat streaming not just as a branding channel but as a performance engine, measured increasingly by sales, sign-ups and bookings rather than just reach.
Finally, Amazon Ads sees creators and contextual advertising reshaping how brands tell stories. Creators will act less like influencers and more like long-term partners, while scene-aware ads on streaming platforms will allow brands to insert hyper-relevant offers into the flow of what viewers are watching.
Taken together, Amazon Ads argues, these shifts mark a move towards advertising that is both more human and more measurable, where AI handles the complexity, and creativity does the persuading.
