MAM
Kalyan Jewellers brings Shweta Bachchan on board
MUMBAI: After having Amitabh Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan as brand ambassadors for the longest time, jewellery brand, Kalyan Jewellers, has roped in Shweta Bachchan Nanda as an influencer. She will feature in the brand’s latest TV campaign along with her father Amitabh Bachchan, who has been Kalyan Jewellers’ global brand ambassador since 2012.
Headquartered in Thrissur in the state of Kerala, Kalyan Jewellers is one of the largest jewellery manufacturer distributors in India. Starting with the first jewellery showroom in 1993, Kalyan Jewellers has enjoyed a long-standing presence in India for over two decades.
The father-daughter duo will enact the special bond they share on film for the first time. The ad film, scripted by L&K Saatchi & Saatchi and directed by GB Vijay from Sculptors Production, narrates the story of a father and daughter, while also echoing the values of trust and transparency, that the brand stands for.
Nanda, who recently announced her upcoming book, is also known within close circles as a designer. On board Kalyan Jewellers, Nanda will be the face of many customer-centric initiatives of the brand. Renowned for her sartorial elegance, she will also bring her unique style sensibilities by curating signature collections for the brand.
Kalyan Jewellers executive director Ramesh Kalyanaraman says, “We are extremely delighted that Shweta has consented to participate in a Kalyan Jewellers brand TV campaign. We have had a long association with the illustrious Bachchan family, with both Mr and Mrs Bachchan representing the brand globally. We believe that audience will love to see the film wherein, both, Shri Amitabh Bachchan and Shweta play the role of a father and daughter, in an ad film for the first time. As a brand, Kalyan has always celebrated the bonds of family and relationships and the new film epitomises family values. Shweta’s design inputs will also augment Kalyan’s chic and trendy signature collections.’’
The TVC, which is also being shot in Malayalam will have Manju Warrier playing the role of Amitabh Bachchan’s daughter. The advertisement is expected to go on air in July.
Kalyan has been present in the GCC since 2013 and has operations in the UAE, Qatar, Oman and Kuwait. It has set industry benchmarks in quality, transparent pricing and innovation. Kalyan offers an array of traditional and contemporary jewellery designs in gold, diamonds and precious stones catering to the distinct needs of the customers.
Today, Kalyan Jewellers has 122 showrooms across India and West Asia. Kalyan Jewellers continues to adhere to the founding principles of its forefathers of pursuing fair and ethical business practices.
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.
