MAM
Ogilvy names Ritu Sharda chief creative officer Ogilvy North
MUMBAI: Ogilvy is happy to announce the appointment of Ritu Sharda as Chief Creative Officer, Ogilvy North. This appointment is effective April 2019.
Ritu comes to Ogilvy with over 18 years work experience that covered work on brands like Quaker Oats, Mirinda, 7Up, Zandu, Wrigley’s, SC Johnson and Exxon Mobil, McDonald’s, Samsung, Maggi, Dabur, MasterCard, Coca Cola, HP, Microsoft, HBO to name a few.
Ritu is a much awarded creative professional. She was a part of the Cannes Cyber Jury in June 2018 and also a speaker at the prestigious 3% Conference.
She is also the winner of accolades at international award shows such as Cannes, The One Show, The Andy’s, LIA, The Work and ADFEST. Her work includes celebrated campaigns like #ReleaseThePressure for Mirinda and #StandByToughMoms for SCJohnson.
Sonal Dabral, Chief Creative Officer South & South East Asia and Vice Chairman India, Ogilvy, “I’m thrilled to have Ritu join us to lead the creative for Ogilvy North. Ritu is a celebrated new age creative leader who believes in the power of creativity and technology to drive business growth. She is an innovative thinker and has created big bold work on big businesses. Ogilvy North is an important office with some significant brands and strong, experienced creative teams. I’m sure with her multidisciplinary expertise and her energy she will help lead the agency to the next level.”
Kapil Arora, President, Ogilvy North: Ritu has the passion for ideas, the energy and mindset that will not just benefit our client brands, but will also enhance the formidable talent force of our creative team. With Rohitash (head of planning) and Ritu, we now have the final, critical piece of our Next Chapter plans in place and I am looking forward to their partnership in setting new benchmarks for the work from Ogilvy.”
“We are at a very interesting point of inflection in our business, a point that is both intimidating and exciting. The stellar leadership of Ogilvy along with its pedigree talent and enviable list of clients, is poised once again to blaze a new trail during this time. I am excited to play my part in this,” said Ritu Sharda.
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.
