MAM
Lowe Lintas: Iyer takes over as chairman, Gupta as CEO
MUMBAI: MullenLowe Lintas Group today, through an internal communique sent out by Joseph George (Joe), Group Chairman & CEO, MullenLowe Lintas Group announced the leadership for its flagship agency – Lowe Lintas.
Lowe Lintas chief creative officer Arun Iyer will operate as the chairman & chief creative officer of the agency. Partnering him will be Lintas’ veteran Raj Gupta, currently the president and Mumbai office head, Lowe Lintas, who will operate as the CEO of the agency. Both these appointments, the communique said were to be effective from 1 April, 2017.
Joe said: “I have worked long, and closely with both – individually and as a team; and I can without a shred of doubt say that Arun and Raj are best placed in experience, expertise and energy to fulfil Lowe Lintas’ business, effectiveness and creative ambitions going forward.”
Arun who has been with Lowe Lintas for over 15 years has been the creative genius behind many campaigns across Surf Excel, Idea, Tanishq, Axis Bank, Paperboat, Freecharge, Hotstar, Google, OLX, Fastrack, Flipkart, Hike and many others. He was the youngest Creative Director in the history of Lintas to have been appointed National Creative Director in 2010 and also when appointed Chief Creative Officer in 2016.
Arun Iyer said: “We are getting ready for the future and the plan is to ensure we have the most contemporary hyper-bundled offering in the industry.”
Raj Gupta who has been with Lintas for over 25 years has held leadership positions in the company across Media, Digital, Strategic Planning, Channel Planning, Business Development and of course Account Management. His width of expertise and leadership experience across functions, the company feels, will be invaluable in the agency’s journey back to full service or what at the Group they call Hyper-bundling.
Gupta said: “Great brands have a purpose that never stops unfolding and with our determination to make Lowe Lintas truly hyper-bundled, we will now have so many more ways to tell our brand stories.”
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.
