MAM
L&K Saatchi & Saatchi strengthens creative team in Mumbai
Mumbai: L&K Saatchi & Saatchi India has announced two key appointments for its creative teams in Mumbai. Joining the agency are Chandani Samdaria, who comes on board as senior creative director and Nikita Goswami who has joined as creative director. The duo will report to L&K Saatchi & Saatchi joint national creative director Rohit Malkani.
Both join at a time when the agency has been winning a stream of new businesses since the start of 2020. Their task would be to ideate, co-create and put out compelling pieces of work in the marketplace while also playing an important role in increasing the creative standing of the agency especially in the western region.
Malkani said: “At L&K Saatchi and Saatchi Mumbai, we are at the crux of a fabulous tomorrow, with a slew of new brands, leadership and energy. In the sea of prospective candidates that I met over the last few months two individuals stood out for me. They were bright, articulate and talented of course, but above all, they both had minds that were buzzing with fresh perspectives and a hunger for great work that I have rarely seen. Thank you Nikita and Chandani for teaming up for this gig and we’re looking forward to some seriously differentiated work from you!”
Samdaria joins the agency from Leo Burnett and has nearly a decade of creative experience handling brands across categories like F&B, entertainment, haircare, detergent, personal hygiene etc. Some of the brands she has worked on include Amazon Audible, Tide, Knorr, Closeup, Clinic Plus, Ariel, Hotstar, Kwality Walls, Pillsbury etc.
Chandani said: “L&K Saatchi & Saatchi has a bag full of established brands and I feel that I can help build the creative prowess further. When I spoke to Paritosh, I liked the vision he had for the agency and that’s what pulled me towards it. The only challenge was joining during the ongoing Covid2019 crisis, but everything fell into place sooner than I’d imagined. In fact, this pandemic made me realise that advertising today is more relevant than ever before. We are not just selling a product, we are selling stories of hope and emotions that will help us rebuild as a race. There’s a sea of negativity around us. Along with L&K Saatchi & Saatchi, I’m just hoping to create a few waves of positivity in it.”
Goswami joins the agency from Ogilvy & Mather and has over ten years of experience managing creative mandates for brands like Taj Hotels, Dove Hair, Tang, Cadbury’s, Red Label Tea, Vodafone, Parachute, State Bank of India, Vodafone among others. She has also had promising stints at Publicis Capital, Euro RSCG, McCann Erickson and Lowe Lintas.
Goswami said: “I see myself as a perfect fit for the leadership Paritosh and Rohit were looking for. I'm thrilled to join L&K Saatchi & Saatchi – a place with rich veins of talent and a good portfolio to match. I enjoy being a part of a dynamic culture that continues to bring forth interesting opportunities despite an ongoing pandemic. Today's advertising is particularly challenging and needs conscious messaging and speedy execution. I look forward to bring these to the agency and contribute meaningfully to its creative output.”
Both the appointments are effective immediately and based out of Mumbai.
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Digital
Content India 2026 opens with a copro pitch, a spice evangelist and a £10,000 prize for Indian storytelling
Dish TV and C21Media’s three-day summit puts seven ambitious projects before an international jury, and two walk away with serious development money
MUMBAI: India’s content industry gathered in Mumbai this March for Content India 2026, a three-day summit organised by Dish TV in partnership with C21Media, and it wasted no time making a statement. The event opened with a Copro Pitch that put seven scripted and unscripted television concepts before an international panel of judges, and by the end of it, two projects had walked away with £10,000 each in marketing prize money from C21Media to support development and international promotion.
The jury, comprising Frank Spotnitz, Fiona Campbell, Rashmi Bajpai, Bal Samra and Rachel Glaister, evaluated a shortlist that ranged from a dark Mumbai comedy-drama about mental health (Dirty Minds, created by Sundar Aaron) to a Delhi coming-of-age mystery (Djinn Patrol, by Neha Sharma and Kilian Irwin), a techno-thriller about a teenage gaming prodigy (Kanpur X Satori, by Suchita Bhatia), an investigative crime drama blending mythology and modern thriller (The Age of Kali, by Shivani Bhatija), a documentary on India’s spice heritage (The Masala Quest, hosted by Sarina Kamini), a documentary on competitive gaming (Respawn: India’s Esports Revolution, by George Mangala Thomas and Sangram Mawari), and a reality-horror competition merging gaming and immersive fear (Scary Goose, by Samar Iqbal).
The session was hosted by Mayank Shekhar.
The two winners were Djinn Patrol, backed by Miura Kite, formerly of Participant Media and known for Chinatown and Keep Sweet: Pray & Obey, with Jaya Entertainment, producers of Real Kashmir Football Club, also attached; and The Masala Quest, created and hosted by Sarina Kamini, an Indian-Australian cook, author and self-described “spice evangelist.”
The summit also unveiled the Content India Trends Report, whose findings made for bracing reading. Daoud Jackson, senior analyst at OMDIA, set the tone: “By 2030, online video in India will nearly double the revenue of traditional TV, becoming the main driver of growth.” He noted that in 2025, India produced a quarter of all YouTube videos globally, overtaking the United States, while Indians collectively spend 117 years daily on YouTube and 72 years on Instagram. Traditional subscription TV is declining as free TV and connected TV gain ground, forcing broadcasters to innovate. “AI-generated content is just 2 per cent of engagement,” Jackson added, “highlighting the dominance of high-quality human content. The key for Indian media companies is scaling while monetising effectively from day one.”
Hannah Walsh, principal analyst at Ampere Analysis, added hard numbers to the picture. India produced over 24,000 titles in January 2026 alone, with 19,000 available internationally. The country now accounts for 12 per cent of Asia-Pacific content spend, up from 8 per cent in 2021, outpacing both Japan and China. Key exporters include JioStar, Zee Entertainment, Sony India, Amazon and Netflix, delivering over 7,500 Indian-produced titles abroad each year. The top importing markets are Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, the United States and the Philippines. Scripted content dominates globally at 88 per cent, with crime dramas and children’s and family titles performing particularly strongly.
Manoj Dobhal, chief executive and executive director of Dish TV India, framed the summit’s ambition squarely. “Stories don’t need translation. They need a platform, discovery, and reach, local or global,” he said. “India produces more movies than any country, our streaming platforms compete globally, and our tech and creators win international awards. Yet fragmentation slows growth. Producers, platforms, and tech move in different lanes. We need shared spaces, collaboration, and an ecosystem where ideas, technology, and people meet. That is why we built Content India.”
The data, the pitches and the prize money all pointed to the same conclusion: India is not waiting for the world to discover its stories. It is building the infrastructure to sell them.
