MAM
Kyoorius Designyatra 2024 starts 26 September at Grand Hyatt Goa
Mumbai: Kyoorius Designyatra, India’s biggest anti-disciplinary design conference, presented by Zee5, with Air India Express as journey partner and Johnnie Walker as celebration partner, commences on 26 September 2024 at the Grand Hyatt Goa. Running until 28 September, the event will gather top minds to explore various design fields, including architecture, interiors, branding, illustration, animation, typography, communication, digital, experiential, product, and packaging.
The theme for this year is ‘Academy of Play’, highlighting the importance of playfulness in creativity and urging the design community to explore the role of play in their creative processes. Kyoorius founder and CEO Rajesh Kejriwal shared his excitement for the upcoming conference: “At this year’s Kyoorius Designyatra, we have transported the Grand Hyatt into the Academy of Play to explore how play drives the creative process. Through the Academy of Play, attendees will hear from our ‘Professors of Play’ – those who have made play an essential part of their process. We can’t wait to make it memorable for everyone.”
The ‘Professors of Play’ will share their insights and creative journeys, offering attendees the chance to learn from key figures across various creative disciplines. Speakers include Adidas kit designer for Team India Aaquib Waani, known for his work on the 2024 Olympics and international cricket kits; Knopf graphic designer Chip Kidd, whose notable works include Jurassic Park, Peanuts, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, and 1Q84; Bang & Olufsen’s former creative director Johannes Torpe, known for his innovative designs blending aesthetics and functionality; typographer and lettering artist Gemma O’Brien; interactive installation artist and engineer Nassia Inglessis; and acclaimed artist and designer Paul Cocksedge, whose work explores light and materiality through playful installations.
Other speakers include IKEA in-house designer Akanksha Deo Sharma; Studio Lotus founding principal Ambrish Arora; Amna Elshandaweely fashion designer Amna Elshandaweely; 3D artist and animation director Eva Cremers; PepsiCo India & South Asia head of design Tanu Sinha; Studio Waldemeyer co-founders and product designers Moritz Waldemeyer and Nazanin Farahbod; Mota Italic typeface designers Rob Keller and Kimya Gandhi; Atelier Kaja Dahl stone sculptor and product designer Kaja Solgaard Dahl; That Thing founder and creative directors Joe Weir and Mark Williams; It’s Nice That editor-in-chief Matt Alagiah; STUDIO EEKSAURUS founder and creative director Suresh Eriyat; and Somnath Bhatt, designer, artist, and writer, among others.
In addition to the inspiring talks, Kyoorius Designyatra 2024 will feature interactive workshops and hands-on experiences, giving participants opportunities to put their play into practice.
The event culminates on the 28 September with the prestigious 2024 Kyoorius Design Awards Night, celebrating the finest design talent in the industry with the Blue and Black Elephants at the Kyoorius Design Awards. Along with that, the Red Elephants will be announced for the Kyoorius Young Blood Awards, honouring young, bold, and innovative creators who are shaping the future of design.
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.
