MAM
ARY Digital Network to organise first Pakistan Fashion Week
MUMBAI: The first Pakistan Fashion Week, which is scheduled to take place in Lahore in October this year, is being organised by the country’s television channel ARY digital Network.
Top designers from Pakistan and India are expected to showcase their latest collections in this maiden concerted effort to bring Pakistani designers under one roof and showcase the talent that they possess to the world.
IMG, the world’s premier sports, leisure and lifestyle management and marketing agency, which also has been managing the Lakme India Fashion Week since its inception in 2000, will be the International Consultant for Pakistan Fashion Week.
ARY Digital Network president and CEO Salman Iqbal said, “Over the years ARY has been promoting Pakistani talent from the music and television industry around the world and we are now proud to pioneer the effort to popularise Pakistani fashion to the world. We expect this initiative to help grow and support the evolving fashion industry through a structured approach. Pakistan Fashion Week will bring together all the important elements of the fashion industry in an integrated manner. Pakistan has the potential for becoming a significant player in the booming fashion sector and Pakistan Fashion Week will play a critical role to help achieve this position.”
Pakistan Fashion Week is expected to provide a platform to develop business opportunities for designers, encourage investments and professional input in design labels, and aid the growth of the designer ready-to-wear lines. The development of an entire fashion supply chain through backward linkages with suppliers and textile mills and forward linkages with the retail and distribution network is estimated to create employment for a large number of youth in Pakistan. The event will also provide Indian designers to highlight their creativity and tap a new market.
The participating designers will showcase their ready-to-wear and bridal lines at the country’s largest fashion event. The four-day event will include 16 shows, exhibition stalls, and business seminars. Thirty designers, 25 from Pakistan and five from India are expected to participate. The participation of Indian designers is likely to cater to the increasing demand in Pakistan for their products. Pakistan Fashion Week has been conceived with the primary objective of creating business relationships and facilitating a dialogue between designers, trade buyers and media.
ARY Digital Network has appointed IMG as the International Consultant for organising Pakistan Fashion Week. IMG today owns New York Fashion Week, Los Angeles Fashion Week and commercially represents London Fashion Week, Milan Fashion Week, Sao Paolo Fashion Week, the British Style Awards and IMG Models is considered the world’s number one agency.
IMG senior vice president and IMG/TWI, South Asia managing director Ravi Krishnan said, “We are excited that ARY Digital Networks has taken the initiative to organise Pakistan Fashion Week. We hope this will be the catalyst for the Pakistan Fashion Industry to make its mark and also provide an opportunity for Indian Designers to open up what could be a significant market for them. IMG is proud to be playing a role in this historic initiative.”
Pakistan Fashion Week will be open to visitors by invitation only. It is expected to have more than 12,000 visitors ranging from individual buyers to institutional buyers, retailers, exporters, the textile industry, print and electronic media, as well as sponsors’ guests.
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.
