MAM
On Children’s Day, dentsu Impact’s chilling ode to ‘Chotu’
NEW DELHI: Nelson Mandela, the former President of South Africa, had once said, “There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.”
Children’s Day is celebrated to raise awareness about the welfare of our children. Yet, look around and you will witness that the reality is quite far from the truth. Children are suffering everywhere and they are abused daily. Their basic rights, education, dignity, hope, and most of all, childhood is snatched away from them, every single day. Currently, millions of child labourers in India are employed across the country in various segments like homes, factories, construction sites, and elsewhere. Popularly referred to as 'Chotu', these children often deal with menial, backbreaking, and dangerous jobs.
In an ode to showcase this tragedy, dentsu Impact, the creative agency from the house of dentsu international, has launched an eye-opening film in association with My Choices Foundation and Saregama Caravan.
The film #ChotuKaChildhood showcases various versions of Chotu and the hellish world in which they exist. It communicates their silent suffering, a voice that the world can hear. It also sends out a message that the next time anyone sees such heinous abuses around, s/he must report it and not walk away. Only then, we will be able to save the world, one child at a time.
dentsu Impact managing partner and national creative director Anupama Ramaswamy said, “Seeing little children working to make ends meet is the worst form of pain. But we walk away, without reporting it. Why did we choose to launch the film on Children’s Day? We believe the contrast of using an occasion, which celebrates children to highlight their suffering, will make the bitter truth come to light more strongly. It is my hope that with more people understanding the message of the film, they will raise their voices against child labour, and help usher in change.”
Ramaswamy shared that the My Choices Foundation wanted the world to note that there are too many children who still do not enjoy full rights and free choices. “The problem is, we all feel sad when we see a child working for a living, but nobody reports such instances. They wanted to bring to notice the violence, abuse, and exploitation these children go through,” she said.
She further elaborated that every single situation depicted in the film is inspired by real life. The child labour problem in our country is because of child protection laws, organisations cannot ask people to click pictures or geotag the location, etc. “The only way is to urge people not to walk away. Not just empathise and feel pity, but to report. Every one of us needs to report such instances. In the last few days, a lot of eminent people have shared this film. The message is definitely being noticed. We cannot change the entire society, but even if a few people start reporting, I would like to believe our efforts paid off,” she shared.
My Choices Foundation’s aim is to see the transformation of India into a safe place for children, and hope this film will help them do that.
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.
