MAM
Havas Life Sorento appoints Sachin Talwalkar as ECD
MUMBAI: Sachin Talwalkar has been appointed as executive creative director of Havas Life Sorento, the award-winning health and wellness communications agency from Havas Group India umbrella. In his role, Sachin will be responsible for driving the creative vision and strategy for Havas Life Sorento. He will be based in the Mumbai office.
Havas Life Sorento managing partner Sangeeta Barde said, “Health & Wellness is recognized as one of the most significant sectors today. We are seeing transformations & innovations at an unprecedented rate. This changing face & pace opens opportunities to provide a fresh, innovative & creative perspective for brands & businesses. Sachin will lead the HLS creative team and work closely with Bobby Pawar to enhance the overall quality and effectiveness of our creative output. We are confident that Sachin’s vast experience & diverse expertise will bring desired value to our clients and Havas Life Sorento will continue to lead this transformation through its talent & rigor.”
"Healthcare and wellness in the communications category can boast of real impact and change. It has always fascinated me, and it is on everybody’s mind given what the world is going through right now. With business models, consumer behavior and communication channels evolving, it has become a very significant and interesting category to work in. Moreover, smart technologies, data mapping and digital marketing are providing brands and agencies newer opportunities to communicate their offerings more effectively and in real-time. I am excited to see that HLS is leading this shift in India. I look forward to contributing and accelerating this process through refreshing, relevant work." said Talwalkar.
Talwalkar is an award-winning ad professional with over 18 years of experience in communications, brand consultancy, and filmmaking having worked across agencies and geographies. He has worked with leading agencies. across various countries in Europe, APAC, SAMEA & India.
Most recently, he has worked as a brand and creative strategist for clients and agencies in India and Europe. His global client roster includes names like Volkswagen, Procter & Gamble, L’Oreal Paris, Walt Disney, Times of India and Unilever. His work has been recognised by many coveted awards, including Ad Club Germany, Mobius, Eurobest, Epica, Cresta, NY Festival, Clio, Montreux Ad Festival, Ad Club Austria, Econ Awards, FAB Awards and LIAA.
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.
