MAM
Ameer Ismail promoted as GolinOpinion president
MUMBAI: PR veteran Ameer Ismail has been promoted to President by MullenLowe Lintas Group, effective immediately. He has led the group’s PR firmGolinOpinion (formerly LinOpinion) for over 20 years and built the agency into one of the top players in the PR industry. He was also instrumental in bringing Golin on-board as JV partner in India in 2014. GolinOpinion operates as a part of the marketing services offerings of MullenLowe Lintas Group.
Ameer continues to report to Vikas Mehta – Group CMO & President, Marketing Services for the group. Announcing this elevation, Vikas said “Ameer is just the right mix of Vintage and Vision. In a time when the practice of PR is more important than ever, but the business of PR is getting highly commoditized; he’s the kind of leader the industry needs. PR is an integral part of our re-bundled offering and GolinOpinion occupies a great position in the market today. Reinventing yourself from a position of strength is a rare & valuable opportunity and I’m delighted to have Ameer lead that agenda for us.”
Founded in 1996, LinOpinion was amongst the first PR offerings by a communications group (Lintas) in India, and remains the most successful of any agency’s PR offerings to date. Since 2015, the agency has been on a journey to evolve its model, structure, and offerings. The agency is now fully structured around Golin’s world-renowned G4 model. It was also one of the first PR firms in the country to offer a social media practice in the form of brand newsrooms, called the Bridge™.
Speaking of the promotion, Ameer Ismail, says, “I am so proud to be a part of this great institution – the MullenLowe Lintas Group and am looking forward to this new phase in my journey with a renewed focus and dedication towards delivering great work. GolinOpinion is recognized as a premium and leading player in the PR industry. We have today some of the best brands represented in our portfolio. As the business evolves, I am tasked to work closely with our management team to takeGolinOpinion to even greater heights by building scale and new competencies that will continue the brave work that has been our trademark so far.”
GolinOpinion manages the PR mandate for some leading global and Indian companies and brands including TATA Starbucks, Dubai Ports World, Budweiser, Texas Instruments, HUL (multiple brands), Seiko, Etihad Airways, Marriott International Inc, Porsche, Lamborghini, Cinepolis and Sony Pictures Networks India.
Ameer is a part of the Golin global leadership group and works closely with the regional and global MDs. He serves on the advisory committee board of several management forums. He has served as a jury for several award shows including SABRE and GoaFest. He has worked with the Centre of Change Management in successful seminars like International Brand Summit and The Asia Pacific HR Conference. He was also awarded the CMO Asia Award for Outstanding Contribution to Corporate Communications in Singapore in 2011 and recently named one of the top 10 leaders in the PR industry in India by Reputation Today magazine.
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.
