MAM
Omnicom names DDB’s Aditya Kanthy CEO of Omnicom Advertising Services in India
Mumbai: Omnicom chairman and CEO John Wren has named Aditya Kanthy as CEO of the newly formed Omnicom Advertising Services group in India. Kanthy will oversee Omnicom’s creative agencies in the region, focusing on talent, cross-agency collaboration, and innovation to drive growth in one of the company’s fastest-growing markets. The respective creative agencies within the group – DDB, BBDO and TBWA – will maintain their current branding in the Indian market.
Omnicom Advertising Services will bring together the power of Omnicom to provide exceptional integrated solutions to meet the needs of clients in India. The group will capitalize on the top talent housed within its leading networks and work in partnership with other Omnicom agencies, such as Omnicom Media Group, to further strengthen Omnicom’s comprehensive offering in India. Omnicom recently announced the creation of large global capability centers with four campuses out of Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, and Gurgaon.
“This year India will become the most populous nation on the planet. It is an important growth engine for Omnicom. By centralizing the leadership of three creative powerhouses under Aditya, we will continue to build on our agencies’ strong foundations to deliver a wider breadth of capability and scale for our clients,” said Omnicom chairman and CEO John Wren. “Aditya brings deep experience to the newly created Omnicom Advertising Services, and our India operations is primed to thrive under his leadership.”
Kanthy, currently CEO of DDB Mudra Group, began his career in Mudra in 2003 as a strategic planner, taking on various responsibilities over the years including Chief Strategy Officer, a role in which he helped shape India’s most successful independent advertising agency into an Omnicom-owned integrated marketing communications group. As the new leader of Omnicom Advertising Services India, he will further strengthen Omnicom’s presence and ensure all of our capabilities are extended to our top clients.
Speaking about this development, Aditya Kanthy said, “Omnicom is the most creative global network in the world. Our agencies represent the enduring power of creativity to build brands and businesses. I look forward to bringing the might of the Omnicom network to clients in India and continue to attract the best creative talent in one of the most exciting markets in the world.”
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.
