MAM
Ajay Gahlaut moves on from Publicis Worldwide
NEW DELHIL Ajay Gahlaut, CCO and MD of Publicis Worldwide, India (PWW) has decided to move on from the agency and pursue his passion on a personal front. He will be with the agency until mid-August and will ensure a steady handover to all concerned teams and clients.
The agency has also announced the elevation of Vikash Chemjong and Basabjit ‘Tito’ Mazumdar to the role of Joint NCDs. The duo would take on the role of managing the creative mandate for all brands under PWW including Publicis Capital, Publicis Ambience, Publicis Beehive, Publicis Health, Publicis Emil and Publicis Business and will report to Publicis Worldwide MD Srija Chatterjee, India.
Publicis Groupe South Asia CEO Anupriya Acharya says, “Working with Ajay has been a great experience even though our overlap has been only six months! He has built a great team here and we thank him for all his contributions. Am sure he will be successful in whatever he chooses to do next and our best wishes are with him.”
Vikash and Tito had joined Publicis Capital over a year ago as National Creative Directors. Over the past one year, they have been instrumental in shaping the creative universe of some key brands under Publicis Capital including Beam Suntory, GUS, GPI, Nestle, Goodricke, Emami to name a few. Prior to joining Publicis, they both were Group Creative Directors at Ogilvy India and have over four decades of creative experience between them.
Srija Chatterjee said, “Ajay has been a great friend and a fantastic creative leader to have around. Over his 18-month long stint, he has helped build and nurture the creative process and output for a number of brands at the agency. I wish him a great ride in his future endeavours.”
On the new roles for Vikash and Tito, Srija added, “We are fortunate to be running on a Groupe philosophy that thrives on the model of collaboration and ensure that we breed and train talent of great calibre. To that end, both Vikash and Tito come with over 40+ years of combined work experience and have been successfully leading the Publicis Capital business for the last one year, partnering some of our clients in delivering some great work. I look forward to them playing a key role in raising the creative bar.”
Ajay Gahlaut said, “For me it has been a wonderful year and a half at Publicis. I have made many friends, built a powerhouse creative team and done some nice work. The only reason for moving on is a desire to try new things. This is an extremely exciting time for all kinds of creative content in the country. I have a couple of interesting options I can explore. And while I will never say never to advertising, I thought it was a good time to attempt some things I hadn’t tried before.”
Gahlaut remarked that it was extremely satisfying to see Vikash and Tito elevated as creative heads. “I have always believed in promoting from within and I’m sure that the duo will rise to the occasion. Ranadeep Dasgupta, meanwhile, will look after the New Delhi office and I’m certain that he too will shine in his new role.”
Vikash and Tito affirmed, “It’s a great honour for the both of us. This is a new role but we will deal with it in much the same way as we have dealt with all our briefs. Just roll up our sleeves, order some excellent food and keep at it until we are satisfied. Both with the food and with the ideas! Because we have realised over the years, that if we are happy and convinced about our ideas, more often than not, so are our clients!”
Gahlaut has been a part of noteworthy campaigns such as Emami Navratna – ‘Raahat Raja featuring Salman Khan’, HDFC MF – ‘Baat Bane Kishton Mein’ and Skoda Auto – ‘Peace of Mind’ among others.
AD Agencies
Abhay Duggal joins JioStar as director of Hindi GEC ad sales
The streaming giant brings in a seasoned revenue hand as the battle for Hindi television advertising heats up
MUMBAI: Abhay Duggal has a new desk, and JioStar has a new weapon. The media and entertainment veteran has joined JioStar as director of entertainment ad sales for Hindi general entertainment channels, adding 17 years of hard-won revenue experience to one of India’s most powerful broadcasting operations.
Duggal is no stranger to big portfolios or bruising markets. Before joining JioStar, he spent a brief stint at Republic World as deputy general manager and north regional head for ad sales. Before that, he put in three years at Enterr10 Television, where he ran the north region for Dangal TV and Dangal 2, two of India’s leading free-to-air Hindi channels. The north alone accounted for more than 50 per cent of total channel revenue on his watch, a number that tends to get attention in any sales meeting.
His longest stint was at Zee Entertainment Enterprises, where he spent over six years rising to associate director of sales. There he commanded the Hindi movies cluster across seven channels, owned more than half of north India’s revenue across flagship properties including Zee TV and &TV, and closed marquee sponsorships across the Indian Premier League, Zee Rishtey Awards and Dance India Dance. He also handled monetisation for the English movies and entertainment cluster and the global news channel WION, a portfolio that would stretch most sales teams twice his size.
Earlier in his career Duggal closed what was then a Rs 3 crore single deal at Reliance Broadcast Network, one of the largest in Indian radio at the time, before that he helped launch and monetise JAINHITS, India’s first HITS-based cable and satellite platform.
His edge, by his own account, lies in marrying data and instinct: translating audience trends, inventory signals and client demands into long-term partnerships built on cost-per-rating-point discipline rather than short-term deal chasing. In a media landscape being reshaped by streaming, fragmented attention and AI-driven advertising, that kind of rigour is increasingly rare and increasingly valuable.
JioStar, which blends the scale of Reliance’s Jio platform with the content firepower of Star, is doubling down on its advertising business at precisely the moment the Hindi GEC market is getting more competitive. Bringing in someone who has spent nearly two decades doing exactly this, across some of India’s most watched channels, is a pointed statement of intent. Duggal has spent his career turning audiences into revenue. JioStar is clearly betting he can do it again, and bigger.
