MAM
Eggfirst brings on senior hires to bolster business
MUMBAI: Two new senior egg-xecutives have rolled into Mumbai based creative agency Eggfirst. Both have oodles of agency experience under their shell.
Hitesh Sohandani who has been hired as business head has worked for nearly 15 years in agencies such as Triton Communications (11 years in two stints of around five years each) and Everest Brand Solutions, apart from hopping over on to the client side (Suashish Diamonds for a short stint. Sohandani was part of the team that rebranded water purifier brand Aquaguard Total.
Sunil Balan has been recruited as the agency‘s client servicing director and has close to 10 years experience with agencies such as Quadrant Communications (seven years) and also Creative Juice (an agency he helped start).His expertise lies in marketing communications, brand management, digital marketing and strategic communications.
Says Sohandani: “I am absolutely delighted and am looking forward to the exciting opportunities at Eggfirst. Given the ambitious growth plans, I am relishing the challenges that lie ahead.”
Adds Balan: “Eggfirst is the place I was looking to work with to do some really exciting work. With an immensely hard working team, I am keen on working with them to take it to the next level”.
Eggfirst chairman & managing director Ravi Banka believes that their joining his agency is going to really strengthen the management. Says he: “In the ever-evolving business environment where consumers are co-creators of brands, and with the competition being cutthroat among agencies, Eggfirst is looking at getting on board clients known for their creative breakthroughs. I am confident that Balan and Sohandani will play an important role in helping Eggfirst expore new endeavours in coming years.”
Eggfirst is a full service advertising agency which offers end to end creative solutions. It has two other wings – 5 degrees which digital provides end to end digital marketing and social media strategy solutions. It also has a specialised retail wing called Eggfirst Mandi. The agency’s clients have included Unilever, Vim, Hari Darshan, Tata Consulting Services, Tata Salt, Shalimar Paints, Reliance Digital, Maya Digital, Shivam autozone and Blaupunkt.
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.
