Ex-Monks India MD Robert Godinho joins Spectacom Global as co-founder

NEW DELHI: Robert Godinho is trading production floors for starting lines. The former managing director of Monks India has joined Spectacom Global as co-founder, bringing his experience in creative production, technology and storytelling to the company’s ambition to turn participative sport into a mainstream fitness movement.

Spectacom Global, which operates Devils Circuit and The Yoddha Race, will look to Godinho to help scale its business alongside founders Adnan Adeeb and Zeba Zaidi. The company says its events have recorded more than a million finishers across over 12 Indian cities, as fitness racing draws participants seeking challenges that go beyond conventional workouts.

Godinho’s career spans television, film and technology. He founded creative studio WhiteBalance, which merged with Media.Monks, part of S4 Capital, in 2020. He subsequently led content operations across India, overseeing large-scale production systems, virtual production infrastructure and teams recognised for creative and technological innovation.

At Spectacom, he joins a business that has spent more than a decade building sporting experiences around obstacles, endurance and community participation.

“There is nothing more exhilarating than seeing ordinary people achieving extraordinary feats,” said Spectacom Global co-founder Robert Godinho. He said changing the invitation from ‘are you good enough to compete?’ to ‘would you like to participate?’ could significantly broaden a sport’s audience and reshape brand communication.

Godinho added that while participative sports events take place on specific dates, the communities they create remain active throughout the year. He said Spectacom’s experience of more than 14 years and over 500,000 participants had given it a depth of understanding and credibility that would be difficult to replicate.

For the company’s founders, the appointment comes as they seek to build on that foundation and expand the category.

“Making a real impact isn’t about chasing big wins, it’s about building a healthier community that shows up for each other again and again,” said Spectacom Global founder Adnan Adeeb. He described Godinho as a builder who understood the importance of craft and culture, adding that his appointment strengthened the company’s ambition to make participative sport a way of life in India.

Spectacom Global co-founder Zeba Zaidi said its experiences were designed to give people reasons to train, meet others, pursue goals and create memories throughout the year, culminating in a race day that celebrates their progress.

She said Godinho’s experience in building systems and telling stories would help the company take those experiences to wider audiences while preserving their personal appeal as it expands globally.

Spectacom’s flagship Devils Circuit is a 5km obstacle course featuring 15 military-style challenges. Since launching in 2012, it has completed more than 82 editions and attracted athletes from over 50 countries.

In 2024, the company launched The Yoddha Race, a hybrid fitness championship combining distance running with functional strength stations. It also features one of the largest prize pools in Indian fitness racing, according to the company.

Spectacom is developing additional properties, including The Greatest Of All Teams Run, or The GOAT Run, which it describes as India’s first and only team running race. Together, these ventures form part of a broader ecosystem combining live experiences, technology and content around human performance.

The company’s stated ambition is to challenge perceptions of India as an unfit nation and position the country as a home for strength, endurance and sporting achievement.

Godinho joins as demand for community-driven fitness challenges spreads from metropolitan centres to smaller towns. Participants are increasingly treating race weekends as milestones, training for months before taking on the challenge.

For Spectacom, the opportunity now lies in turning that enthusiasm into a larger sporting culture. With Godinho bringing production expertise and storytelling to the mix, the company is betting that the next big fitness movement will be built not just around who wins, but around how many people show up.