MAM
Grafdoer Ropes in bollywood actress Karishma Sharma as its brand ambassador
MUMBAI: While a sophisticated smart home is everyone's dream, a space that can truly make us comfortable and feel luxury is our bathroom. Thus, taking design inspiration from German technology, GRAFDOER, a new wave of premium category bath fittings, kitchen sinks and sanitaryware brand was launched in India in 2019, under the parent company VMS Bathware Pvt Ltd., a leading manufacturer since last 16 years. Recently, the brand collaborated with Karishma Sharma, an Indian actress, and model, as its brand ambassador. She is known for portraying Tina in Pyaar Ka Punchnama 2, Ragini in Ragini MMS: Returns, and some famous music videos Tera Ghata by Gajendra Verma and the latest one Super thirty with Hrithik Roshan
Speaking on the development, Mr. Vinay Jain, President Marketing & CEO, Grafdoer said, “For us to become an apex player in the luxury bathware segment we needed to get associated with someone who can personify a strong connect with women who take decisions on sanitaryware requirements in their home spaces. Incidentally, Karishma through her stylish approach and various stints in Indian television series was the right fit, hence, we on-boarded her.”
Recently, the company has also geared up its manufacturing capability to meet the growth in demand and plans to grow from 700 retail stores to 1400 by the end of this fiscal year.
Speaking on this association, Ms. Karishma Sharma, said, “I am happy to be a part of Grafdoer. Luxury, style, modernity, and elegance have always fascinated me and Grafdoer resonates that thought beautifully in its designs. I look forward to a long, fulfilling association with the brand.”
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.
