MAM
Clensta appoints Navin Prajapati as VP of retail sales and new initiatives
Mumbai: Personal care brand Clensta has appointed Navin Prajapati as vice president of retail sales and new initiatives. Navin brings his seven-year experience to Clensta, leveraging his deep understanding of market dynamics and consumer preferences to optimise the brand’s presence in traditional retail channels and establish strong partnerships with key players in the industry.
In his new role, he will also develop fresh avenues for expanding the company’s reach globally and establishing a strong business presence for Clensta in international markets. In addition to ensuring customers have easy access to Clensta’s wide range of skincare, haircare, body care and wellness products, Navin will also drive the generation of additional revenue streams in sectors such as general trade, modern trade, institutional sales, and the HORECA business.
“I am very excited to join the Clensta team and be part of a brand that is redefining the traditional concepts of personal care. Clensta prioritises sustainability, the use of natural ingredients and innovative technology solutions to show consumers a better way of living. I look forward to expanding our inventory and retail sales and establishing Clensta’s presence across the world through innovative customer outreach initiatives,” said Clensta vice president Navin Prajapati.
An MBA graduate from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, Navin was a former entrepreneur having founded Sabka Mandi and has also dabbled as a chartered accountant. He was the part of founder’s office in companies like mCaffeine and has also been associated with Colgate-Palmolive as a business leader associate and Unilever.
“We are thrilled to have Navin Prajapati join the Clensta family. His vast experience and knowledge of market dynamics will help propel Clensta onto its next wave of growth and expansion, shifting from a product value chain to a distribution value chain. This strategic shift under Navin’s leadership will help us reach a larger consumer base while allowing us to stay true to our commitment to innovation and sustainability,” said Clensta founder Puneet Gupta.
Clensta recently joined hands with actress Parineeti Chopra as an investor, partner and brand ambassador. Since its inception, Clensta has secured funding from notable investors like IAN and IAN fund, IPV, VCats and Hem Securities.
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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.
