MAM
McCann strengthens management and creative teams
MUMBAI: Continuing its string of senior level appointments, IPG‘s McCann has appointed Ranjeev Vij as general manager McCann Delhi and Abhishek Das creative director – digital at McCann Mumbai. Recently, the agency brought on board ex CEO of Iris Alok Lall as executive director.
Vij has over 18 years of experience in the field. He started his career in 1994 as account supervisor at Enterprise Nexus. After six years at the agency, he moved to Draft FCB Ulka and later shifted to O&M as account group manager. His next move was to join Lowe Lintas as brand director before returning to Enterprise Nexus as account director for a while. After his second stint at Enterprise Nexus, he joined Redifusion DY&R as general manager on Bharti Airtel. After this, he joined Vyas Giannetti as VP and branch head and then moved to IRIS Worldwide as board director.
During his career, Vij has handled brands such as Airtel, General Motors, Aviva Life Insurance, DHL, J&J, P&G, Pepsico, VISA, HP, Sony and Sony Erickson.
Das has been in the industry for the past 10 years now having started his career with Ab&m Communications in New Delhi as senior copy writer in the year 2002. After working for two years, he moved to Oxygen and then to Tribal DDB before joining McCann New Delhi as creative supervisor.
Das has worked with brands such as TimesJobs, SimplyMarry, magicBricks, Hyundai, Volkswagen, Volvo, Nescafe, Kitkat, ESPN Star, MTV and UNESCO during his career so far.
Das said, “This would be my second stint at the McCann Worldgroup. It‘s been over five years since the last time I was at McCann Delhi and things have changed a lot. Prasoon and I have been in talks about building a strong digital presence for McCann for a while now, and given his vision of things to come, the challenge was very hard to resist. I look forward to adding a host of digital creative solutions to McCann‘s extensive portfolio.”
McCann Worldgroup chief executive officer Prasoon Joshi said, “Abhishek and Ranjeev are a great combination of new age media thinking with a sound background in the traditional. They both have more than a key role to play to further accelerate McCann‘s drive into the futuristic model and cutting edge offering.”
Digital
Galleri5 launches India’s first AI cinema OS at India AI Summit
Collective Artists Network unveils end-to-end production platform powering Mahabharat series and Hanuman teaser.
MUMBAI: India’s cinema just got an AI operating system upgrade because why settle for tools when you can have a full production command centre? Collective Artists Network and Galleri5 today unveiled Galleri5 AI Studio at the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, billing it as the country’s first cinema-native production technology platform. Launched on 20 February 2026, the system acts as an end-to-end orchestration layer for film and television, integrating generative AI, LoRA-driven character architecture, controlled shot pipelines, 3D/VFX tools, lip-sync, upscaling, quality control, and delivery, all tuned for theatrical and broadcast standards.
Unlike piecemeal AI tools, Galleri5 controls the entire stack from script and world-building to final master output. Filmmakers retain creative authorship, continuity, and IP security while slashing timelines from years to months.
The platform is already in live use at scale. Mahabharat: Ek Dharmayudh, an AI-powered series produced under Collective’s Historyverse banner, is airing on Star Plus and streaming on JioHotstar, ranking among the top-watched shows in its slot. Meanwhile, Chiranjeevi Hanuman – The Eternal (produced by Star Studios 18) dropped its teaser on IMAX screens, leveraging Galleri5’s infrastructure for the visuals.
Collective Artists Network founder and group CEO Vijay Subramaniam said, “For India to lead in the next era of storytelling, we have to think beyond tools and start building systems. This is about putting durable production infrastructure in place so creators can dream bigger, producers can execute faster, and our stories can travel further.”
Galleri5 partner at Collective and CEO Rahul Regulapati added, “Cinema requires precision, repeatability, and control. Off-the-shelf AI doesn’t solve that. Orchestration does. We built an operating system where technology bends to filmmaking, not the other way around.”
Under Historyverse, Collective Studios is developing a slate including Hanuman, Krishna, Shiva, and Shivaji blending advanced AI systems with traditional craft. The summit session featured directors from Hanuman, Krishna, and Shiva alongside Collective leaders, diving into real-world case studies: what delivers on screen, what glitches, and how production economics are shifting.
At a summit packed with global tech brass and policymakers, Galleri5 stakes a bold claim, cinema’s future belongs to integrated systems, not isolated gadgets and India is building one right now. Whether you’re a filmmaker eyeing faster workflows or just curious about AI remaking epics, this OS could be the script-flip the industry didn’t see coming.
