MAM
Keshav Chandorkar to head rural marketing function at Carat Fresh
MUMBAI: Aegis Media’s Carat Fresh Integrated has launched its rural marketing vertical with KeshavChandorkar who comes in as National Head- Rural Marketing.
He will report to Carat Fresh Integrated VP Sampat Shenoy.
Chandorkar’s previous stint was as Dun and Bradstreet National Manager Rural Marketing. Prior to that, he was at rural marketing firm Linterland for nearly a decade.
Aegis Media South East Asia CEO and India Chairman Ashish Bhasin said, “Rural marketing, in a country like India, is probably the most important aspect for several marketers but is often ignored due to the lack of knowledgeable and professional agencies. Having worked on several rural brands myself, including the launch of Wheel by HUL, and having established Linterland from scratch, my learning is that rural marketing has an almost endless potential for our clients, particularly when urban markets are slowing down.”
Shenoy said, “In Keshav, we have a seasoned media professional with huge experience in the rural sector. His experience will help us in further strengthening our rural operations and in expanding our reach.”
Chandorkar said, “I wish to explore all growth possibilities and aspire to expand our presence to make it stronger in the years to come.”
He has around 17 years of experience in activation, profit centre management, key accounts management, rural marketing and strategy planning. His other stints during his career include Dr. Jain Video on Wheels and Selvel.
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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.
