MAM
Goafest 2016: Mindshare and Maxus dominate Media; Dainik Jagran leads publisher category
MUMBAI: Goafest 2016’s first ABBY night kick started with healthy dose of laughter well packed in snarky and quick witted jokes delivered by the ever charming Vir Das. Still holding their stomachs, the entire advertising fraternity of India prepared themselves to see who bagged the metals in the Media and Publisher categories.
Continuing their winning streak two years in a row, Mindshare India were the clear leader in the media category with 17 metals to their name, out of which two were gold, six silver and nine silver. The agency bagged gold in Best Use of Newspaper and Magazine category for their Lakme Lip pouts in Grazia — Play time for your pout campaign for Lakme; and in Best use of Integrated campaign category for Before Iftar time; It’s Lifebouy Time for Lifebouy.
The second agency leading Media ABBY was Maxus, with 7 metals to their name. Maxus got their gold for their ‘Get A Job’ campaign for LinkedIn in the Youth Marketing category.Apart from this they bagged two silver and four bronze trophies.
Extending his congratulations to the winners, The Advertiisng Club president Raj Nayak said, “It is such a pleasure to see such tremendous work from brilliant minds winning much deserved Abbys for their efforts. What we’ve seen and are likely to observe in the next two days are some of the most creative works produced by advertising, media and marketing professionals in the country. It makes me immensely proud to be witnessing the triumph of talent across the board. With Goafest 2016, our aim is to celebrate creativity, originality and innovation and I believe we have begun on the right note today. I’m very happy that the entire industry has come together to celebrate the industry’s biggest event.”
Apart from them, Pratap Bose’s The Social Street emerged as a powerful contender in the media category winning two golds and two silver trophies on their first year of entering the ABBY.
A total of 11 golds were given away in the Media ABBY, followed by 36 silver and 30 bronze trophies. In the Publisher category, Dainik Jagran rose as the clear lead bagging all the three golds given out in the category.
2016 has proven to be a good year for the ABBY. With total entries clocking at 4500, there has been a clear 25 per cent increase in entries from the previous year. This trend isn’t limited to entries. This year 150 jury members participated in the judging, with 86 for media ABBY alone. In total, 76 media agencies participated this year as compared to 53 last year.
“Along with giving young enthusiastic talent a platform for their work, it is also our outlook, as the organizing committee of Goafest to curate best in class seminars and conclaves which will provide opportunities for professionals from the industry to learn and grow together. It is our constant endeavor to recognize and felicitate the best of the best creative minds for the unparalleled work that they have been doing. My heartiest congratulations to all our winners tonight,” Goafest Organizing Committee chairman Nakul Chopra added in parting.
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.
