MAM
MTNL launches mobile content of Big B’s ‘Dil Jo Bhi Kahey’
MUMBAI: MTNL Dolphin has announced a tie-up with Entertainment One and Mauj Telecom for the exclusive mobile content and co-promotion of the latest Amitabh Bachchan starrer – Dil JO Bhi Kahey. The entire range of mobile content, including wallpapers, ringtones, SMS tones, colour logos, animation and dialogues from the movie, are available on MTNL’s WAP portal – Fun Station.
MTNL has also announced a special offer of rent-free GPRS service for one month. Consumers can SMS GPRS to 555 from their Dolphin phones to avail of the free GPRS facility. With this, MTNL also becomes the first mobile operator in Mumbai to launch video ringtone services.
Video-based ringtones are essentially ringtones with a video or animation clip. Just like regular ringtones, when the user gets an incoming call, a high quality video plays on the screen along with the sound. In addition, the name of the caller will be displayed over the video, if it is stored in your contacts. Video ringtones have been made available in the following categories: toons, abstract, animals, Bollywood, models, fashion, spirituality, etc.
“MTNL’s first movie association with the upcoming movie Dil JO Bhi Kahey had many more firsts. Video ringtones was an innovative product that Mauj launched on Fun Station, and was exclusively available on Dolphin for our GPRS customers. Fun Station is MTNL Mumbai’s very own WAP Portal for downloading exciting ringtones, wallpapers, games and other interesting applications,” said MTNL Mumbai executive director Kuldeep Goyal.
On the occasion of this tie-up, Amitabh Bachchan said, “Video ringtones is a real fun new ringtone application where mobile consumers get to see a video with full sound. I am very happy that this product launches premiering music video and movie clips content from my movie Dil JO Bhi Kahey. This kind of co-marketing between the telecom and entertainment world is very heartening.”
Mauj COO Arun Gupta said, “Bollywood remains the most popular sources of entertainment in this country, and hence we are working with film production houses as well as cellular operators to bring more and more Bollywood content on mobile phones. MTNL Dolphin’s Fun Station portal is widely used, and is an apt vehicle to drive our objective. This initiative further proves that Mauj is at the forefront of producing quality wireless content.”
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.
