MAM
Goafest 2017 receives 4500 entries from 329 companies
GOA: Goafest 2017, India’s foremost advertising, media and marketing convention kick started its annual festival with a ceremonial popping of the champagne bottle to herald a brand-new edition of the event. The day one of the festival saw an exciting conclave with industry stalwarts such as Upasana Taku of Mobikwik, Hemant Malik of ITC Limited and Acharya Balkrishna of Patanjali Ayurved taking the center stage.
In its 12th year, the convention has received a whopping number of 4500 entries with about 2500 delegates attending the three-day long festival. This year, Goafest has received the highest number of sponsors. What’s more? It has also gone digital with an app and a website this year. The festival is also going green in partnership with National Geographic who have arranged several campaigns like conservation of water, recycled paper, etc.
Advertising Agencies Association of India president Nakul Chopra said, “Twelve years ago, Goafest began as an event for people from the world of advertising to get together to network and celebrate quality work. Today, it gives me immense pleasure to see how this festival has grown into becoming one of the foremost events in the creative calendar. It’s extremely encouraging for us to see so many young people participating in the event with such enthusiasm – and not just attending the ABBYs but also showing immense amount of interest in the varied seminars that we have lined up this year. If the scene on day one is anything to go by, I’m pretty sure the next two days are going to be just as exciting with some exemplary speakers taking the stage and some must attend seminars taking place.”
The industry body claims to have invested approximately 8-10 crore in the event this year.
The Advertising Club president Raj Nayak said, “Goafest is the world’s largest industry event in the advertising industry – organized by two industry bodies coming together. In the true sense, it is an event by Indians, for Indians and completely made in India. Goafest is the world’s largest even organised by an industry body. It is not for profit. This year, we had over 300 jurors from across the country coming together to judge the entries for which awards will be presented over these three days of the event…with almost 112 of them judging tonight’s Media and Publishing ABBYs. Goafest, when it started was only a creative awards ceremony. However, today, in its twelfth edition, it has become a festival of knowledge, wisdom, entertainment, fun and a great networking opportunity.”
Nayak also said that the event can get almost 10000 people provided there is an infrastructure to support the same.
Goafest 2017 chairman Ashish Bhasin said, “With changing times, Goafest has also evolved. For the first time Goafest is going green in part by getting the delegates visiting the event to conserve water and taking other baby steps to our bit for the environment. This year we have heavily subsidized entry to let more and more young people to attend the event. It is extremely exciting for us to see so many young people participating in the event and appreciating the changes we have brought in. Curious young minds are keen to attend seminars and talks by interesting speakers this year. Day 1 has been such a huge success. We can only see this getting better and better over the next two days.”
Chairman of the Awards Governing Council of Goafest 2017 Ramesh Narayan added, “The atmosphere at Goafest is always filled with excitement, camaraderie and a whole lot of fun. And this year is no different. It is absolutely heartening to see members of the advertising and marketing fraternity sending in some wonderful entries this year which have kept the jury on their toes. Judging any award is a difficult process and more so when you’re pitting one excellent entry against another. Judging by the level of excitement today, I’m sure that the next two days are going to be absolutely spectacular.”
With industry specific conclaves to expert seminars and ABBYs presentations, the Goafest ABBYs 2017 presented by the The Advertising Club and The AAA’ of I has once again seen the entire advertising and marketing community descend upon the silver sands of North Goa to celebrate excellence in creativity across media platforms and genres.
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.
