MAM
Apollo puts tyres to the test as Team India’s grit gets the big screen
MUMBAI: From dusty maidans to packed stadiums, every great cricket story begins with a long drive and Apollo Tyres is betting that journey is where the real drama lives. The tyre major, lead sponsor of the Indian cricket team, has rolled out a new brand campaign, Har Safar Mein Dum Hai, placing endurance and discipline at the heart of both Indian cricket and its own brand philosophy. The film brings together Sachin Tendulkar and current Team India stars Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill and Arshdeep Singh, all appearing in official Team India jerseys.
Directed by filmmaker Abhinay Deo and set to A R Rahman’s Maa Tujhe Salaam, the film traces the real-life journeys of the players from childhood ambition to the weight of wearing the India jersey. The narrative places as much emphasis on family sacrifices and personal discipline as it does on talent, underlining the standards required not just to reach the top, but to stay there.
Running through the story is Tendulkar, not merely as a brand ambassador but as a living benchmark, a reminder of the values and expectations that continue to shape Indian cricket across generations. The campaign draws a parallel between this legacy and Apollo Tyres’ own evolution from a domestic player to a global brand built on performance and reliability.
“This campaign reflects a core belief at Apollo Tyres that excellence is built through resilience, discipline and consistency,” said Apollo Tyres Ltd vice chairman and managing director Neeraj Kanwar describing Har Safar Mein Dum Hai as a tribute to the Indian spirit and the commitment it takes to be the best.
Scriptwriter and conceptualiser Simran Kanwar said the film focuses on the relentless pursuit of excellence rather than the moment of arrival, calling it one of the rare campaigns to unite multiple global sporting icons from a single sport, anchored by a song synonymous with Indian cricketing pride.
The cricket establishment has also thrown its weight behind the narrative. Board of Control for Cricket in India secretary Devajit Saikia said the film captures the hard work, sacrifice and endurance required to represent the country at the highest level, adding that the association reflects a shared belief in nurturing talent from the grassroots up.
For Apollo Tyres, the campaign is more than a star-studded spectacle. According to Apollo Tyres Ltd Group head of marketing Udyan Ghai, the film reinforces the brand’s positioning around performance and reliability, while mirroring Indian cricket’s journey from local beginnings to global stature.
In a country where cricket is measured as much in emotion as in runs and wickets, Har Safar Mein Dum Hai makes a clear pitch, greatness is not about the destination, but the road and having the stamina to stay the course.
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.
