MAM
KamaSutra’s steamy ad crashes India-South Africa cricket broadcast
Mumbai : A sultry 20-second condom advertisement caught millions of viewers off guard during the India versus South Africa cricket match, igniting fresh questions about advertising standards and the boundaries of prime-time television in India.
The KamaSutra long-last commercial, which has accumulated 1.5 million YouTube views, depicts a woman in nightwear negotiating a hotel late checkout with her companion. What begins as flirtation escalates into explicit sexual innuendo. “Can we do a late checkout?” she purrs. The exchange culminates in a cut to the KamaSutra box materialising in her hand, complete with a voiceover explaining the product’s climax-delay lubricant. Her final line, delivered in a sultry whisper: “I love it when he takes time.”
The spot’s appearance during live cricket has ignited immediate pushback. Families gather for such matches, children cluster around screens and community viewing remains standard practice. The ad’s unapologetic celebration of female pleasure and extended intimacy, whilst refreshingly frank, landed on screens designed for mass consumption rather than adult-only viewership.
KamaSutra, established in 1991 under the Raymond Group led by Gautam Singhania, has a history of courting controversy. The 1995 Tuffs shoes campaign featuring Milind Soman and Madhu Sapre’s nude photoshoot with a python became emblematic of the brand’s fearless approach. A 1991 KamaSutra campaign with Pooja Bedi similarly scandalised Indian audiences.
Yet this moment differs. Previous campaigns trafficked in shock value at controlled moments. This advertisement breached the sanctuary of prime-time family viewing without warning. It is not the first time such lapses have occurred. During the New Zealand versus Pakistan match in the ICC Champions Trophy 2025, explicit web series teasers appeared throughout the broadcast on JioHotstar, drawing complaints from viewers watching with family and children. The pattern suggests systemic failures rather than isolated incidents. The question now facing broadcasters, advertisers and regulators is straightforward: does a product’s legitimacy excuse its placement, or does context matter more than content?
The debate extends beyond prudishness. It concerns the unspoken contract between viewers and broadcasters about what constitutes appropriate timing. Late-night slots exist precisely because they allow adult-oriented content without ambushing unsuspecting audiences.
KamaSutra’s boldness may prove costly or prescient. Either way, the ad has forced India’s media landscape to reckon with where lines ought to be drawn.
Your serve, readers. Head to our LinkedIn page and tell us: bold marketing or botched timing?
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.
