MAM
Goafest 2017: Change is possible when one takes risks, says Patanjali’s Balkrishna
GOA: Who would have thought that in the advertising and marketing world of suited-booted and/or casual linen chic people, a simple robe clad guy would turn out to be dude? Well, who would have wagered a few years back that Patanjali would be a starred speaker at India’s annual advertising, media and marketing convention and have a houseful of corporate execs hanging on to every word, some of which were spoken in chaste Hindi? Desh badal raha hai (or, the country is changing), after all, in ways that the countrymen and women are still grappling to come to terms with.
“The nation is ours, the children are ours, life is ours. We must take care of it ourselves. Always remember, for the world, India is just a market place (but) for us it’s our home. Change is possible only when one is willing to take risks,” Patanjali Ayurveda CEO Acharya Balkrishna said with a straight face, but with a confidence that comes from the realisation that some of the top global FMCG companies were feeling the heat of Patanjali’s unrelenting advertising and marketing blitz.
The oozing confidence found other outlets too. Without giving a second thought, Balkrishna took on a competitor. “ Patanjali set up a factory in Tejpur in Uttar Pradesh where Dabur too was setting up its factory. In 120 days, Patanjali built up the factory with same workers who were (earlier) working for Dabur,” said the Nepal-born Balkrishna, regarded as the No. 2 in the Patanjali group hierarchy, just next to its yoga guru founder-turned-entrepreneur Baba Ramdev.
In the FMCG space, some of the Patanjali Ayurveda products that have eaten into the market share of established global and Indian companies include Dant Kanti (toothpaste), atta or flour noodles, multi-grain and plain flour for rotis or Indian bread and Kesh Kanti (hair oil), apart from other categories where Patanjali products are giving a tough competition to the likes of Dabur, ITC, P&G Colgate-Palmolive and Unilever India.
“Patanjali Ayurved has turned out to be the most disruptive force in the Indian FMCG market…it witnessed a whopping annual growth of 146 per cent in fiscal year 2016 grossing a turnover of US$769 million, whereas its peers, including ITC, Dabur, Hindustan Unilever, Colgate–Palmolive and Procter & Gamble struggled to get a growth much less than double digit,” an Assocham-TechSci research report has stated.
So, what’s the secret of Patanjali in a country that had been dominated by established FMCG players, especially as its founder Ramdev’s antecedents have been questioned at various times?
Pointing out that the Haridwar-based company doesn’t follow any marketing strategy, depending more on “product quality” to attract consumers, Balkrishna played with a straight bat on the opening day of Goafest 2017 yesterday: “Treat your customers as your family members and everything (else) will fall into place. We want to change the impression that made-in-India products are not of good quality.”
If some of these home grown homilies were not enough to rub it in to much-experienced global players, Balkrishna told the audience at Goafest that “duniya ke liye Hindustan ek bazaar ho sakta hai, humare liye Hindustan humara ghar hai” (for the world, India may be a bazaar, but, for us, it’s our home) and change was possible only when one was willing to take risks. Hmm! Hang on, there was more for those willing to listen and the numbers were astounding.
“Toothpaste is meant to clean teeth, but nowadays ads say you can get a girlfriend using the right (tooth) paste,” Balkrishna said with his tongue firmly in cheek, adding, “humare liye humari maryada sabse badhkar hai, sales na ho toh bhi thik hai” (for us, self-respect and respect for our culture is paramount, and not sales of products).
However, Balkrishna did not wander into controversial areas where ASCI, in the past, has hauled up Patanjali for misleading advertising or the court cases against it or filed by the company itself relating to product advertsing and claims.
A fitting tribute to Patanjali’s efforts also came from a competitor. “’Patanjali has shown us marketing methods we never knew,” graciously admitted ITC’s divisional CEO – foods business Hemant Malik, while speaking at another time of the day.
As a parting shot to urban India — many of whose representatives were at Goa — Patanjali’s Balkrsihna told the gathering that Indians “should eat according to the six seasons because our body changes in every season” as do its requirements. “The problem in India is that people in rural (areas) are healthy, but people in metros have nutritional deficiency,” Balkrishna explained.
Other speakers for the opening day included Mobikwik co-founder and director Upasana Taku and ITC’s Malik.
According to Malik, “Communication is the not the only pillar for branding” as there are brands such as Facebook, Amazon and Google that have changed the world. “It’s all about the product differentiation. We are the only carbon-positive company in the world,” Malik spoke about the shift from hierarchical collectivist culture to individualistic.
After being hit by currency demonetisation, where everybody was struggling with liquidity crunches, the mobile payment companies were the one making profit, according to Mobikwik’s Taku, who added, “Humbling and the most fortunate event of 2016 is demonetisation. We have the fortune to have been able to transform India into digital. Mobikwik has 55 million users and 1.4 million retailers in India.”
Taku highlighted some points. In last 10-20 years, telecom has changed in India in a big way. “Till now 14 per cent of cashless transaction has been done in India post-demonetisation, which will go grow to 30 per cent by the end of 2017 and it will grow 30- 40 per cent in two years. I truly believe it’s the era of mobile wallets, and won’t deny that demonetisation has sped up the journey,” she explained.
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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.
