MAM
Milestone on hiring spree
MUMBAI: Integrated OOH brand communications agency Milestone Brandcom has beefed up its staff, making 30 new appointments across senior and middle management positions.
The pimary areas of appointment are Milestone OOH And Milestone Connect as the company aims to enhance the service management and capabilities of the group.
The appointments at Milestone Connect include Ranbir Basses as business head and VP operations, Dhruv Jugran as group director brand communication, Swati Ratnakar as creative and content director planning, Yash Vardhan Verma as director brand communication and Gaurav Singh Chauhan as senior manager brand communications.
Milestone Brandom also got new joiners in the form of Kaushik Chakraborty as AVP client servicing and 360 integration and John Barretto as management supervisor.
Besides the new additions to the team, Ravi Ambrose who held the post of senior VP integration and new initiatives, has been given additional charge of South India operations with Prashant Mishra moving up as Milestone OOH regional head north.
The addition of industry professional and expansion of Milestone’s portfolio reflects the company’s capital efficiency and its commitment to business growth. The agency recently expanded its service portfolio, including Milestone Connect and Milestone Last Mile, with service opportunities to meet the evolving needs of clients.
Today Milestone Brandcom services close to 70 brands, some of which are Tata Docomo, Colors, McDonald‘s, Binani Cement, Viacom18, Axis Bank, L’Oreal, HDFC Mutual Fund, Dish TV, DSP Blackrock and Franklyn Templeton.
Milestone Brandcom founder and managing director Nabendu Bhattacharyya said, “In just two years we have reached a stage where we are one of the leading agencies in the country. We have already touched Rs 2 billion mark in turnover. This year we will try and offer our existing clients more solutions and we will continue to expand our services. We have been growing 100 per cent since the last two years, and this year is going to be no different!”
In the future too, Bhattacharya believes that Milestone Brandcom will continue to benefit owing to its diversification, superior industry talent and proactive approach to investment in the industry.
“I am glad to announce such an exciting force lined up aboard. We were looking to inject excitement into brand communication for our clients with unique brand experiences through consumer connect programs. With such boundless energy and young & enthusiastic team joining us, we are confident to take brand communication and consumer experiences to scale new heights”, added Bhattacharyya.
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.
