MAM
Ajay Chandwani is new Percept H CEO
MUMBAI: Percept H, a joint venture between Percept and Japanese firm Hakuhudo, has roped in former SSC&B Lintas president Ajay Chandwani as chief executive officer of the company.
The vacancy was created after CEO Rajesh Pant was moved to head Posterscope MENA (Middle East and North Africa), as part of Percept’s plans to spread its footprint across the globe. Percept H offers services like account management, account planning, creative and market research and has a wide range of clients including Bharti, Siyaram, Bajaj Tempo and Sahara.
Chandwani was responsible at SSC&B for gaining brands like Mercedez Benz, Hexit, Philips, Parachute, Kissan, Walls Max candy, Green label whisky, Hero Group, Vardhman Group and Moser Baer.
Assisting Chandwani is Prabhakar Mundukur who has joined as chief operating officer. He was earlier with J Walter Thompson where he worked as business development director.
Pant, who would have been based out of Dubai, was given the responsibility of setting up a whole new division in Posterscope MENA, but has decided instead to explore new opportunities.
Percept is now scouting for a CEO of Posterscope MENA to replace Pant. The Indian operations of Posterscope started in 2003 and the company quickly rose to become the top five outdoor agencies in the country. It has clients like Airtel, Pilsbury, Pantaloon, Sahara India and Afro Asian Games.
Pursuing its global plans, Percept Group’s celebrity management and event marketing arm Percept D’Mark (PDM) recently set up its international operations out of Dubai. Sanjay Lal, who was founder and executive director of PDM India, has moved to Dubai as managing director and CEO of PDM International. Preeta Singh, earlier with O&M, has been put in charge of PDM India.
Pant, meanwhile, has joined Mirza Tanners Ltd (makers of the well known footwear brand Red Tape) as director for a new division that the company has launched. Pant has been appointed as director Red Tape Asia, his ambit being to expand the Red Tape product line beyond just high-end footwear into a fashion brand. Pant will also have the responsibility of setting up a retail chain of Red Tape “lifestyle” stores across Asia and the Middle East (India included of course).
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.
