MAM
McDowell’s No.1 Soda and Star Bharat present NO.1 YAARI JAM
MUMBAI: McDowell’s No.1 Soda and Star Bharat launch the Season 1 of NO.1 YAARI JAM, a unique television show that brings together India’s top musicians for great conversations, fun games and unplugged music.
Set in a cozy, casual setting that replicates the home and jamming room of an artist, the No.1 Yaari Jam TV show is hosted by musicians Salim Merchant & Anushka Manchanda. Each episode will have musician pairs as guests who are real life yaars like Sunidhi Chauhan & Shreya Ghoshal, Shaan & Sonu Nigam, Amit Trivedi and Amitabh Bhattacharya, Jonita Gandhi & Harshdeep Kaur among others. The show will launch on December 30th and air every Sunday for 10 weeks at 10.00 pm on Star Bharat and VIU App.
No.1 Yaari Jam will have Salim talking to the guests about powerful bonds of modern day yaari that encourages and aids people in their journey of self-discovery and self-expression. Anushka will be hosting the games section where the guests try to roast their dosts. The chat and games will be followed by some unplugged music.
The ‘No. 1 Yaari Jam’ show has been created by McDowell’s No. 1 Soda in partnership with Mindshare India and is a co-owned content IP. Qyuki Media is the creative partner for the show and Glitch is the Production and Digital Partner.
Commenting on the show, Music composer and Singer Salim Merchant said, “Audiences know their favourite musicians by the amazing sounds they create but behind the music there are untold stories of bonding and friendship that range from emotional to hilarious and No.1 Yaari Jam is our attempt to show the amazing connection that these artists have in real life. I had an amazing time shooting for this show as I got to spend time and chat with some of my closest friends and also make some new yaars.”
Khushboo Benani, Content and Brand Advocacy Head for Diageo India said, “We believe in building brands with purpose and we want to connect with consumers by being a part of their cultural narrative. No. 1 Yaari Jam is not just a TV show or platform, but it is our attempt to showcase some of the most powerful friendship stories from the world of Indian music and tap into one of country’s biggest passion point. Behind the scenes this show has also been our attempt to unlock a forward-looking content and media partnership model with agencies, artists and creators which helps us truly push boundaries for our brands to play in culture.”
Mac Machaiah, Chief Innovation Officer, Mindshare South Asia, said, “We have created a series of successful McDowell’s No.1 Yaari chat shows across various regional markets in partnership with Diageo, which are focused on film celebrities. We created No.1 Yaari Jam to bridge the gap of similar content in the music industry. Through this, the audience can get to know more about the lives of their favourite musicians, in addition to their musical works. We are elated to have embarked on this journey in partnership with Diageo. This has helped us achieve a major milestone that not only makes the platform more accessible to the masses, but also pushes boundaries on media and creative partnerships.”
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.
