MAM
Hindustan Unilever and Mindshare Mumbai bag Grand Prix at Cannes Lions 2016
MUMBAI: Mindshare Mumbai has done India proud at the 63rd Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, by winning the Grand Prix in Glass Lions category for its work on Hindustan Unilever’s Brooke Bond Red Label tea. The brand was honoured last Monday for creating India’s first transgender pop band, the 6 Pack Band as part of the campaign initiative.
The 6 Pack Band comprises six transgender singers hailing from India’s ‘Hijra’ community. It’s an initiative created and driven by Y-Films, the youth wing of Yash Raj Films, to help further the cause of gender equality in India with Brooke Bond Red Label as partner.
Describing the win as an ‘epic moment’ Mindshare South Asia CEO Prashant Kumar added he never doubted the campaign’s success given that the core idea was brilliant. “As an organisation we were expecting that the entry will get a recognition. But winning a grand prix was a great delight.”
“This campaign came out of a content day that we did for Unilever which listed great customised ideas for brand solutions. This was one of the shortlisted ideas amongst few other three to four ideas. Then Amin and his team designed on the concept based on the idea, which was further put to discussion with other partners. The result lead to larger things,” Kumar added.
From the brand’s perspective, Team Unilever South Asia, leader Amin Lakhani admitted that the idea was provocative to begin with. “But with each and every roll out of the content piece our confidence in the campaign grew.”
Kumar also pointed out the unprecedented amount of participation and acknowledgement that the campaign garnered post its launch.
Within a short time period of its launch the music videos featuring the 6 Pack Band grabbed millions of eyeballs on Youtube, was aired frequently on television and the radio. Digitally, it was further boosted by online music streaming apps like Hungama, Gaana and Saavn. The band was also invited to perform at the Radio Mirchi Awards and Indian Music Awards.
When asked how the campaign is a relevant brand communication for Red Label, Kumar answered, “The space the brand and the consumer is talking is about a comfortable ecosystem. The music video is a celebration of just that. It also leads into further such space of comfort, and red Label is able to liaison with consumers on the context of comfort. That’s the larger motive behind this campaign.” After all, Red Label’s proposition has always been to stand up for diffusing tension within societies over a cup of tea, Lakhani added.
The biggest success for the brand, Lakhani felt, was the amount of acceptance the six transgender members of the band received and the fact that they are now looked upon as role models — not just within their community but across various cross sections within the society. By using popular culture Red Label as a brand has started a positive conversation on gender equality, and the previous campaign with 6 Pack Band is part of a larger initiative the brand plans to build around the subject.
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.
