MAM
Aseem Kaushik succeeds Amit Jain as L’Oréal’s new managing director for India
Mumbai: L’Oréal announced the appointment of Aseem Kaushik as managing director for India on Monday. Kaushik took over for Amit Jain, who decided to retire at the end of the year.
Jain will continue his association and assume the role of chairman for L’Oréal India to build on key stakeholder relationships in India.
Since joining in June 2018 as country managing director, Jain, with 30 years of rich experience with renowned companies like ICI, Coca-Cola, Viacom, and Akzo Nobel, has held strategic leadership roles across the globe.
During his 4.5-year tenure at L’Oréal, he doubled the growth of the company and took it to a position of strength, notably by building strong local leadership and evolving new digital capabilities to accelerate eCommerce.
Speaking about his successor, Jain said, “Kaushik was one of the pioneers who set up new businesses and laid the foundation for L’Oréal’s growth in India today. I am delighted to welcome him back after his assignments abroad and to hand over the reins to him. He is a born entrepreneur, and his transformative leadership will help take L’Oréal India to new heights.”
Kaushik has been with L’Oréal for 27 years and has held many leadership positions within the group. He started his career in 1995 in the consumer products division of India, where he set up and expanded field operations. He then took on several leadership roles in the professional products division (PPD) and was instrumental in creating the modern salon industry in India and building a successful, sustainable business model with partners.
Most recently, he led international teams in PPD; first in Asia Pacific (APAC) and then in the South Asia Pacific Middle East and North Africa (SAPMENA) zone, driving an ambitious online + offline transformation agenda for the professional hair industry of the future.
“Jain leaves a strong legacy to follow. India is the next big frontier for the L’Oréal group, and I am looking forward to bringing the best of beauty and consumer experiences to a new connected world. I’m excited to join a team of very talented people and keep creating a positive impact on the broader community,” said Kaushik.
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.
