MAM
Mahindra Holidays asks to put family first in new year
MUMBAI: New year is always a time for new resolutions – to decide how we want to spend the next 365 days and what we want to prioritise.
Do we want to start exercising and finally use that gym membership? Do you want to start waking up one hour earlier or stop eating midnight snacks? How about office – did you resolve to try and leave a little early and get back home for dinner? As you think of the year gone by – think about the people who matter to you the most- your parents or partners, your children or your close friends. Have you done them justice? Did you switch your phone off and spend your Sunday playing with your kid? Did you finally plan that trip that you and your partner have been talking about? Did you take a long weekend and meet all your cousins?
Mahindra Holidays wants to resolve in its latest campaign before the year 2017 ends. In its latest series of advertisements, Mahindra Holidays urges people to spend more time with family and put them first.
Through multiple stories of common people, the brand wants to highlight how somewhere between the late nights at work and chasing your dreams, the people who get left out, are the ones who matter the most.
The concept for campaign was co-created by Mahindra Holidays with the production house, Cheese & Crackers.
The holiday company has launched four films to support the thought and they will be promoted extensively on digital platforms.
Mahindra Holidays and Resorts India chief marketing officer Gridhar Seetharam says, “Our new campaign, #MyFamilyFirst urges everyone to take a family vacation and to prioritize these valuable relationships. Through this campaign we aim to position Club Mahindra as the ultimate destination for families who yearn to strengthen their bonds with their loved ones. We are also happy to unveil a series of four films online, each highlighting how our daily lives keep us so busy that we sometimes tend to ignore what matters the most – our families.”
Listen to stories about people from all walks of life, and why they decided that there’s no better time than now to start planning family holidays.
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.
