AMIN LAKHANI, Chief Operating Officer, Mindshare South Asia

Amin has over 15+ years' experience in various roles in Mindshare and GroupM. He has extensive cross-functional experience in Media, Marketing- Product Management, leading teams and extensive experience working with various clients like PepsiCo, Disney (StarIndia), ABG, HUL, GSK, ICICI, ONIDA, Castrol, HSBC, Kellogg amongst others.
A Strong and passionate leader, team player and motivator with successful track record in directing critical projects under diverse market dynamics. Proven track record of consistently achieving clients' business goals; cultivating Client relationship at the highest level-enabling Strategy Conceptualisation and deftly delivering results. Robust understanding of India's Broadcast industry.

Sandeep Gupta COO - Broadcasting Business, Shemaroo Entertainment Limited

Mr. Sandeep Gupta joined Shemaroo Entertainment in August 2019 and currently holds the position of Chief Operating Officer for the Broadcast Business. Over the past year, Sandeep has played a pivotal role in Shemaroo’s entry into the television segment. He led organization in its quest to reach greater heights with the launch of two new channels Shemaroo MarathiBana, the Marathi movie channel, and Shemaroo’s flagship Hindi GEC channel, Shemaroo TV. With a rich experience of over 15 years, Sandeep is a veteran in the media and entertainment industry. Prior to joining Shemaroo Entertainment, his longest stint was with B4U Television Network India Limited as India CFO & COO – of the Broadcasting Business where he played a significant role in scaling up and turning around the business with improved market credibility and brand image, along with launching television channels for the network. Sandeep has completed his FCA Finance from The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and holds a certificate from ISACA, USA in CISA.

Manoj Jagyasi Chief Revenue Officer ZEE Media

With a career spanning nearly 2 decades, Mr. Manoj Jagyasi is currently working as the Chief Revenue officer at Zee Media Corporation Ltd. Nearly 5 years at ZEE Media, he has gone from strength to strength and finally taken on the role of spearheading the revenue vertical of the entire regional gamut of 10 channels along with the national challenger brand ZEE Hindustan. Leading large size teams across functions, he is playing a pivotal role in content co-creation with editorial board of the organization.
Manoj is well known for a good understanding of regional space and is credited for turning around regional news cluster for the organization, across all markets like West Bengal, Maharashtra, Gujarati. With several Industry first initiatives, Manoj believes in the "Customer First" approach as a core value of his DNA as a professional.
Manoj started his career at RED FM, followed by HUL (Hindustan Unilever), where he was handling the setup of Modern trade and thereon shifted entirely to the media industry.
Before joining ZEE, he was the Business Head -North India & Etv News Gujarati Channel at Etv News Network at TV 18. He is credited with setting up new verticals across channels along leading revenue efforts for Etv News Network Broadcast business for 12 Regional channels for North India and Etv News Gujarati.

Ashish Pethe, Partner - Waman Hari Pethe

Mr. Pethe is presently working as Partner in Waman Hari Pethe Jewellers, One of the most trusted and renowned Retail jewellery chain in Western India. Established in 1909 having Operations spread across three states. The brand has been operating through 26 stores, having a team of more than 900 people.
He has worked with Tata Electric Companies and IMRB before joining family business of “WAMAN HARI PETHE JEWELLERS” in 1995. He has been actively involved in the Gems and Jewellery Trade for more than 25 years.
He has been playing a pivotal role in expanding the brand WHP and in creation of brand identity WHP Jewellers. Under his leadership at WHP he takes care of Legal, Procurement, General Administration and primarily looks after Advertising and Marketing functions.
He is actively involved with the trade bodies at various levels: Zonal Chairman (West Zone) and Director at “ The All India Gems & Jewellery Domestic Council” (GJC) the largest Trade body in the country; Convenor (Head) of Hallmarking Committee; Director, National Governing Board , India Bullion & Jewellers Association (IBJA) - A 100 year old Trade body representing the bullion and retail trade in India.
He completed his bachelor’s degree in B.E. (ELECTRICAL) from VJTI, Mumbai followed by masters in MBA (Marketing) from Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Pune and a certificate course in Diamond Grading from International Gemological Institute.
He has been actively involved in delivering lectures on Marketing & Gold Trade, Hedging at various Management Institutes and Trade seminars.

Subodh Khanolkar - Writer, Director & Producer, Ocean Film Company Pvt Ltd.

Subodh Khanolkar is a Screenwriter, Creative Director and Producer, primarily working in advertising and the Marathi entertainment industry.
Subodh started as a writer-actor since his early years as a student of Mumbai’s D G Ruparel College, eventually foraying into the media and entertainment industry full time. While pursuing his post graduation in Media and Advertising, Subodh began working professionally as a screenplay writer for TV show Strugglers and produced his first Marathi show Jhep.
Since then, Subodh has worked as a story and screenplay writer for various prominent Marathi TV shows such as Shubham Karoti, Mala Saasu Havi, Asmita and reality show Bole Toh Malaamaal. From 2016 to 2020, he worked as the creative director, story and screenplay writer for Zee Marathi’s blockbuster show Tujhyat Jeev Rangala. Subodh has also co-written two Marathi feature films - Haapus (2010) and Sandook (2015).
In 2011, Subodh, along with his two partners - Sujay Hande and Onkar Kate - formed a production house and advertising solutions agency - Ocean Film Company Pvt Ltd. Under the banner of Ocean, he has successfully produced two Marathi TV shows - Bhaago Mohan Pyaare and the currently on air Majha Hoshil Na. Ocean Film Company also works in conceptualisation and production of documentaries, advertisements and is a prominent player in the niche field of creative space designing.

Viraj Raje - Head of Programming, Colors Marathi

Viraj Raje joined Viacom18 in August 2021 to lead the content strategy and creative framework for Colors Marathi. Viraj comes with over 25 years of experience in the industry, having led creative teams across Marathi television and films. Prior to joining Colors Marathi, Viraj worked with Disney+Star India, Reliance – Big Productions, and as a freelance film director, wherein he has revolutionised the Marathi entertainment by creating novel and engaging content.
In his long career, Viraj has been honoured with numerous awards like the Maharashtra State Award for Best Director for the feature film Shyamche Vadil, Best Film, Best Director & Best Child Artist for Babanchi Shala at Chitrapushpa Marathi Film Festival, amongst many others.
Viraj is a Graduate in Arts (Economics) from Ruia College, Mumbai. He has held varied roles & responsibility in the content production ecosystem including donning the hat of Writer, Director and Creative Head.

Jai Lala, Chief Executive Officer - Zenith

Jai is passionate about Media and has over 20 years of experience across Media Planning, Buying, Research & Sales.
He has worked in organizations such as UTV, ESPN Star Sports, Madison, Mindshare and GroupM with Mediacom being his last stint as Chief Strategy & Growth Officer.
He serviced clients across the country such as Unilever, PepsiCo, GSK, ICICI, Castrol, Lenovo, USL, Coke, Marico and many more in various capacities. Jai has handled Media Buying nationally for Mindshare as well as overseeing Xaxis. He created multiple & unique trading practices such as CIP, Guaranteed GRP planning module, Content as Currency & Proprietary Media.
Jai is also a member of the visiting faculty at ISB & MICA. He is extremely passionate about sports especially tennis & cycling. He is a family man who loves to travel at any given opportunity.

Amit Shah, Cluster Head for North, West and Premium Channels - Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd.

Mr. Amit Shah spearheads a cluster of premium channels and regional channels in the North & West regions for ZEE. Amit is responsible for delivering the P&L for the cluster & individual channels along with respective Business heads. With a total team of ~ 200 people from different functions like Programming, Content, Research & Insights, Marketing, On-Air Promotions team and more, Amit is also responsible for new market entries & tapping other channel opportunities in existing North & West markets along with the premium channels segment.
With a career spanning 20 years, Amit has collected varied experiences in Sales & Marketing in two leading FMCG organizations - Dabur and Mondelez.

Sunil Bhosale - Producer

A hard-core production person started his career in 2002 with the famous Marathi daily soap Abhalmaya produced by veteran Actor and Director Vinay Apte. Successful execution of 7 daily soaps and 21 hit films like Saade Made Teen, Dhobipachhad, Checkmate, Aai Shapath, Sanai Chowghade, Narbachi Wadi etc. Producer's favourite Executive Producer who always tried to recover expenditure of films for his producer. It helped him to become a competent producer in a very short period. He has done successful shows like Ratris Khel Chale, 100 days, Aggabai Sasubai, Kay Ghadala Tya Ratri and Toofan Aalaya featuring Amir Khan. Ratris Khel Chale is the first Marathi daily soap which is being shot entirely in Konkan region of Maharashtra.

B Krishna Rao, Senior Category Head, Parle Products Pvt Ltd

A postgraduate in Management from North Maharashtra University and currently based in Mumbai, B. Krishna Rao has more than 20 years of work experience in the FMCG sector across several leading companies such as Parle Products, Uncle Chipps, Maxwell Apparels and Excelcia Foods. Over the years, Krishna has also grown to become one of the key opinion leaders within the industry on several aspects such as manufacturing, distribution, sales, marketing, advertising and branding to name a few.
In his current role as Senior Category Head, Krishna is responsible for Parle’s entire Snacks, Confectionery, Cakes and Rusk portfolio. Krishna works closely across teams within the company to drive need gap identification and new product launches, pricing and profitability, advertising and media management, building brand equity and imagery and budget management.
In the 18 years that Krishna has spent at Parle, some of his landmark achievements include launch of Parle’s snacking portfolio comprising brands like Parle’s Wafers, Chatkeens, FullToss and Mexitos, launch of Parle’s Kachha Mango Bite to be the leading candy brand in the category and launch of Magix cream biscuits to be a market leader within a span of three years of its introduction.
A strong believer in work-life balance, Krishna enjoys playing word games, reading, watching Bollywood movies and listening to retro music in his downtime.

Jayen Mehta, Senior General Manager (Planning & Marketing) - Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd.(Amul)

Jayen Mehta is Senior General Manager (Planning & Marketing) at Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. (Amul) which is India's largest food products marketing organisation. Amul is a cooperative federation of 36 lac milk producers with annual milk volume of more than 9 billion litres. It is ranked 8th largest dairy company in the world in terms of volume of milk handled. The annual sales turnover of Amul brand is approx. Rs 53,000 crores (US$ 7 billion). Jayen has been associated with Amul since last 30 years. He has rich experience in domestic and international marketing of entire range of Amul products. He has a good understanding of brand building, product management, advertising and media, corporate planning, sales and distribution, supply chain management and social media.

Madhavi Mutatkar Chief Executive Officer IMPACT VISION

A Post Graduate in Mass Communications , Mumbai and FTII ( Advanced TV ) Pune, and a veteran of over 40 years in the TV Industry, Madhavi Mutatkar has been a part of the Indian TV space : from Black and White to Color, single terrestrial channel to satellite TV Channels including the first satellite Regional Channels. Major landmarks:
- Part of the team which created India’s first TV Serials Shwetambara and Chimanrao for Mumbai DD
- In the first batch of Producers for Asian Games 1982
- President Zee Network-Launched the first satellite News coverage of General Elections for Zee from Hong Kong and around 10 channels for the Zee group
- Instrumental in creating Properties like Zee Marathi Gaurav Awards , Zee Cine Awards , Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hain and getting the serial ‘Friends’ for the Indian viewers.
- Was Consultant to ISRO for the then proposed Science Channel, also to SAB TV and ETV - Producer and Director of Award winning Marathi TV shows
- Jury member for International Television Awards and for Indian language Film and TV Awards - Was associated in Advisory capacity with reputed institutions like Symbiosis, Pune.

Santosh Ayachit Writer Director & Producer Yelkotti Productions OPC Pvt. Ltd.

Santosh Ayachit started to work in tv at Ramoji film city ,hyderabad from 1999. written and directed many non fiction shows,events and bagged two RAPA awards . He produced ad written
1)Ratris Khel Chale for Zee Marathi
2) Hundred Days Zee Marathi
3)Lakshmi Narayan Colors Marathi
4)Gatha Navanathanchi Produced ,Written and Directed
5)Baalu Mamachya Naavana Chang bhala and just completed 800 Episodes.

Anil Wanvari - Founder, CEO & Editor-In-Chief, Indiantelevision Dot Com

Anil Wanvari, is the founder, CEO and editor in chief of the Indiantelevision.com group. He has spent more than 37 years in the media industry and is considered India's foremost analyst, consultant and catalyst for the media sector.
The Indiantelevision.com group which he has set up has a mission to educate, engage, entertain and enrich the audiences it serves in the various verticals.
It achieves this through the various B2B portals the group runs: indiantelevision.com (for the cable, satellite, OTT, production, advertising, marketing, media industries), tellychakkar.com (TV show and actor news for TV fans), AnimationXpress.com (for the VFX, comics, gaming, and animation segments) and radionandmusic.com (for the FM radio, digital music and music industry).
The Indiantelevision.com group engages with the industry through the various conferences it runs: Indian Digital Operators Summit (IDOS), VidNET, News Television Summit, The Content Hub. The group executes market engagement activities for industry clients - both online and offline through road shows and events. The entertainment part comes in through the India's oldest television awards The Indian Telly Awards which Anil initiated way back in 2000. Additionally, the group also organizes The News Television Awards.
Anil has been Paris-based Reed Midem's India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh representative for some of the world's largest audiovisual content trade exhibitions - MIPTV, MIPCOM, MIPFormats, MIPDoc, MIPCancun,Midem and MIPChina. He represents the world's No 1 property market for the same markets, as well as Reed Exhibitions Asia Television Forum, Singapore.

Mahesh Kothare Indian Film Actor, Director and Producer (Marathi and Hindi Films)

Mahesh Kothare is an Indian film actor, director and producer of Marathi and Hindi films. He has worked in Indian cinema from a young age and acted in well-known movies such as Raja Aur Runk, Chhota Bhai, Mere Laal, and Ghar Ghar ki Kahani. The well known Hindi song Tu kitni achhi hai tu kitni bholi hai o maa from the film Raja Aur Runk features Kothare as Master Mahesh.

Considered a revolutionary figure in the Marathi film industry, he began his directorial career with the groundbreaking Dhum Dhadaka (1985) and has since delivered many box office hits over a period of 20 years. Kothare's films are known for their technical nuances and fantasy concepts and he is one of the few Indian filmmakers who have made successful films in the fantasy genre. Kothare made the first Marathi film in true 3D, Zapatlela 2 (2013) which was the sequel to Zapatlela

Niranjan Avasthi, Product & Marketing Head Edelweiss Asset Management Limited

With over 15+ years of experience and a Cost & Management Accountant from ICAI plus Master of Commerce and PGDMM Rank Holder from Pune University, meet our Product & Marketing Head – Mr. Niranjan Avasthi.
Niranjan has joined Edelweiss Asset Management Limited in the year 2017. He is responsible for the overall product and marketing strategy of the AMC.
When not occupied with work, his passion lies in de-coding and analyzing Fixed Income, Equity Markets along with Macro-Economic trends that defines the investment environment in the country. A voracious reader, he strongly believes in learning new things each day, every day! He lives by the quote “Good in not enough, excellence is the goal!”
Before joining Edelweiss Asset Management Limited, he was head of Product Communication at ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund for 6 plus years. He’s along worked for Reliance Capital Asset Management, ICICI Securities and Share Khan in the managerial roles.

Prashant Vatkar CEO - Godrej Tyson Foods

Prashant Vatkar is CEO, Godrej Tyson Foods Limited (GTFL), a joint venture with Tyson Foods, U.S.A.
Prashant joined Godrej Agrovet in September 2016 and has been leading GTFL since then. He has rich experience in successfully leading consumer facing businesses in personal care and food spaces, both in India and abroad.
Prior to joining Godrej, Prashant had successful stints in HIL Limited and Britannia Industries Limited.
An engineering graduate, Prashant has a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from IIM Ahmedabad. He enjoys playing Basketball and Volleyball and takes keen interest in photography and painting.

Puneet Avasthi - Director (Specialist Businesses)- South Asia Insights Division, Insights Division, Kantar

Puneet heads Kantar India's Specialist Business - this spans Syndicated Services, Digital Measurement, Life Sciences, B2B and Technology. Additionally, he is working towards building an eco-system of data alliance partners that help address client requirements through passive data. He also mentors Kantar's Insights Businesses in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
Over the last 30 odd years, Puneet has worked with organisations such as Kantar and Pepsico in India and the Middle East. Some highlights of his career include setting up the Retail practice within Kantar in India , anchoring a strong relationship with Pepsi India as the account lead including setting up a continuous Retail Audit for Pepsi Beverages India and helping setup the Household Purchase Panel in Saudi Arabia. He has worked extensively on FMCG, Media, Retail, Telecom, Technology and B2B Marketing categories
Puneet has presented 5 papers at MRSI including one that was awarded the best paper for cutting edge work.