MAM
Sumit Walia appointed as vice president, product & marketing at OPPO India
MUMBAI: OPPO India recently announced the appointment of Sumit Walia as vice president, product & marketing to further strengthen OPPO's product offering and establish a stronger connect with Indian consumers.
In his new role, Walia will be spearheading the localisation efforts in product and marketing at OPPO India. Strategically appointed, he will be leading the India market and will be focussing on building and growing the OPPO brand in the highly competitive mobile handset space in India.
Speaking on the appointment OPPO India CEO and OPPO South Asia president Charles Wong said, "In-line with OPPO India's localisation approach, we are happy to have Sumit Walia on-board with us. At OPPO, we are committed to bringing meaningful innovation to Indian consumers and Sumit will be working alongside our local R&D centre in Hyderabad to introduce not only cutting-edge technology but also new experiences customised for Indian consumers. Sumit's appointment comes at a critical juncture as we enter the 6th year of our operations in India & plan to expand our product offerings across all price points. India is one of our key markets, we believe that Sumit will play an instrumental role in strengthening our brand in the coming years. We extend a warm welcome and congratulate him on his new role."
Commenting on his new role, Walia said, "I am delighted to join the OPPO family especially when the brand is experiencing such a phenomenal transformation. The opportunity that lies ahead is incredibly exhilarating and I look forward to working with the team to take OPPO to new heights. Focusing on consumer engagement, the aim will be to bring localised insights across product and marketing portfolio to achieve our goal."
Walia comes to OPPO with over two decades of experience. A well respected and recognised veteran of the technology and telecom space, Sumit has worked with multiple leading brands managing diverse portfolios for Samsung, Huawei, LG Electronics and Videocon. Focusing largely on bringing in a perfect confluence of sales and marketing, Sumit has been at the forefront of strengthening the position of various technology brands in the India market.
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.
