MAM
Embassy Developments appoints Aditya Virwani as managing director
Mumbai: Embassy Developments Limited has appointed Aditya Virwani as managing director to spearhead its next phase of growth. Previously serving as chief operating officer at Embassy Group, Virwani played a crucial role in business expansion and strategic planning. Jitendra Virwani remains chairman, while the team includes Sachin Shah as CEO & executive director, and Rajesh Kaimal as CFO & executive director.
The company is set to enhance its residential portfolio with new projects across major cities, bolstered by the recent merger of Equinox India Developments Ltd. (formerly Indiabulls Real Estate Ltd.) and Nam Estates Private Limited. This strategic move has reinforced its position in the real estate sector, alongside efforts to optimise its capital structure through asset acquisitions and financial initiatives.
An alumnus of the University of Virginia, Virwani has been instrumental in shaping Embassy Group’s business strategies and fostering industry partnerships. The company has appointed Vikas Khandelwal as company secretary & group chief compliance officer, Shailendra K Subbaraya as chief operating officer, and Maria Rajesh as chief human resources officer.
With a focus on long-term value creation through strategic planning and governance, Embassy Developments aims to solidify its market presence. As the real estate sector evolves, the company is positioning itself for sustainable growth.
Aditya Virwani currently serves as the managing director of Embassy Developments Limited, a position he assumed in March 2025. Based in Bangalore Urban, Karnataka, India, he handle the company’s strategic growth initiatives. Prior to this role, he was with Embassy Group for over eight years. From September 2018 to March 2025, he served as chief operating officer, overseeing business expansion and operational efficiencies. Before that, he worked as executive assistant to the chairman from September 2016 to September 2018, gaining valuable insights into corporate direction and strategic decision-making. Aditya Virwani holds a degree from the University of San Francisco, where he studied from 2013 to 2016.
AD Agencies
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.
