MAM
Comic Con India’s Free Comic Book Weekend to be held in June
NEW DELHI: Enthusiasts and fans can download a host of Indian comic book titles for free straight on their desktop during the third edition of Free Comic Book Weekend in India.
Presented by Comic Con India, the weekend will be held on 6 and 7 June. The comics will be available on phone or Tablet (iOs, Android & Windows Store) across the country.
The main publishers participating in the third edition of Free Comic Book Weekend are Amar Chitra Katha, Campfire Graphic Novels, Pop Culture Publishing, Sufi Comics, Diamond Comics and Meta Desi amongst others.
Free Comic Book Weekend was initiated in India by Comic Con India in 2013, with an aim to expand the scope and access of comics across India. Online digital content marketplace Readwhere.com has been partnering with Comic Con India since the very beginning to promote this initiative and allow comics enthusiasts download Indian comics for free. This year also, Readwhere.com will be providing the platform to serve free digital comics to fans across India.
Comic Con India founder Jatin Varma said, “Over 15,000 comic book fans joined the event last year. Comic Con India has plans to make this event grow bigger and better. With an ambition to triple the number, we plan to have a wider outreach and more publishers joining hands.”
Readwhere would be offering more than 1000 titles, from over 50 comic book publishers. Users will have the option of choosing any five for free. The rest will be available at a nominal price as a bundle. Purchases via the Comic Book Store will receive a cashback of maximum Rs 100 in the Readwhere wallet.
Readwhere.com co-founder and director Manish Dhingra said, “Through Free Comic Book Weekend, 2015, we hope to reach audiences in all corners of India, to get addicted to comics and relive their childhood, or buy comics for their Kids. Digital presents the best medium to read and share comics.”
The titles featured this year will be a mix of iconic and latest. This year’s spectrum of comic books includes Stan Lee’s Chakra Boy, Sab Ke Comics, Vrika- Dawn of the Wolf and Angry Maushi by Abhijeet Kini. Besides this the other publishers including Pran’s Features, Campfire Graphic Novels, Pop Culture Publishing and Amar Chitra Katha, who have always been around with their classics and the contemporary.
Fans can download, purchase the comics via web (http://www.readwhere.com) or the Readwhere app on Android (http://rdwh.re/androidapp) and iOS (http://rdwh.re/iosapp).
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.
