MAM
Birla Sun Life Insurance appoints Taproot India as its creative agency
MUMBAI: Birla Sun Life Insurance (BSLI), the insurance arm of Aditya Birla Financial Services Group, announced the appointment of Taproot India as it creative partner.
Birla Sun Life Insurance had invited four agencies to share their strategy and creative recommendations, namely, McCann Erickson, JWT India, Taproot India and Scarecrow. The incumbent agency is JWT India and has partnered BSLI for over five years.
Speaking on the appointment, Aditya Birla Group CMO financial services Ajay Kakar said, “Today, the Life insurance industry is at an inflection point in India. There is an opportunity for us to redefine the role that this industry can play in the life of mass India. At Birla Sun Life Insurance, we remain committed to our chosen strategy to provoke mass India to self-realise the importance of life insurance in their lives, as a source of certainty in a rather uncertain world. With Taproot India, we have found an agency that not only guide and partner with us in the creative expression of our brand, but more importantly, also help us strategise for the way forward.”
Taproot India co-founder and chief creative officer Agnello Dias said, “Birla Sun Life insurance, as a brand, is very passionate about its business and operates with great clarity, sharp insights and a strong point of view. As its communication partner, we look forward to making the brand even more relevant to consumers than it is.”
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“Birla Sun Life Insurance has done some brave work in the past in the insurance category. It is seen as a leader and we are very excited to work with the brand. Birla Sun Life insurance will also add a different dimension to the Taproot portfolio,” said Taproot India co-founder and chief creative officer Santosh Padhi.
“Despite the presence of many players in this category, a strong brand with a clear agenda will always have the opportunity to create interesting brand conversations. We are more than delighted to partner Birla Sun Life Insurance in its journey ahead,” added Taproot India CEO Umesh Shrikhande.
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.
