MAM
Ormax’s Top 5 Most Popular Characters Features Meher from Chhoti Sarrdaarni
MUMBAI: Colors’ new show, ChhotiSarrdaarni, launched on July 1, 2019, has been performing very well for the channel. The show became the top show on the channel within weeks of its launch, and its lead protagonist Meher, played by Nimrit Kaur Ahluwalia, has been rising up the audience popularity characters. As per the Ormax Characters India Loves report for October 2019, Meher has broken into the list of top 5 Hindi GEC fiction characters, at no. 5. The top 5 coveted club includes long-running and established characters Jethalal (Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah), Naira (Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai), Pragya (Kumkum Bhagya) and Daya (Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah).
Meher has shown a consistent increase in her popularity rank month-on-month, from no. 44 in July 2019, to no. 25 in August 2019, to no. 9 in September 2019, and now at no. 5 in October 2019. She ranks no. 3 in the Punjab market, in which the show’s story is set.
Speaking about Meher’s rise in popularity on Ormax Characters India Loves, Keerat Grewal, Partner – Ormax Media said: “Ormax Characters India Loves was launched in 2010 to measure popularity of fiction characters at a monthly level. It is well understood that a successful character with a popular fanbase can help give a show longevity and sustenance by building a loyal audience base, which is critically important in today’s times of low attention spans and media clutter. Meher is one of the few fiction characters who have seen such a meteoric rise in their popularity. Normally, characters take 6-12 months to enter the top 10, but Meher has managed to enter top 5 within four months of the show’s launch”.
Brands
OpenAI hires Nitin Bawankule as head of enterprise sales, India
Former AWS, Google and Disney+ Hotstar leader to drive AI adoption at scale
MUMBAI: OpenAI has appointed Nitin Bawankule as head of enterprise sales for India, strengthening its leadership bench as it deepens its push into one of the world’s fastest-growing AI markets.
Bawankule, who will join in mid-May, brings more than two decades of experience across cloud, media, and digital ecosystems. Most recently, he served at Amazon Web Services, where he led multiple high-growth verticals and helped accelerate enterprise adoption of cloud and AI solutions in India.
Announcing the move, OpenAI head of enterprise sales, India Nitin Bawankule said he is looking forward to helping organisations transition from “isolated AI pilots to company-wide transformation” and embedding AI into everyday workflows to unlock productivity and better decision-making.
Before AWS, Bawankule held senior leadership roles at The Walt Disney Company, where he led ad sales for Disney+ Hotstar and television networks, driving revenue growth across major sporting and entertainment properties. He also spent over eight years at Google, including a stint as country director for Google Cloud in India.
His appointment comes at a time when Indian enterprises are rapidly scaling AI adoption, moving beyond experimentation to integrating AI into core business functions. OpenAI’s decision to bring in a seasoned enterprise leader signals its intent to capture this opportunity and build deeper partnerships across industries.
With a strong track record in navigating major technology shifts, Bawankule is expected to play a key role in translating AI’s promise into practical, business-ready solutions for Indian companies.
As the race to operationalise AI gathers pace, OpenAI’s latest hire suggests it is gearing up not just to participate, but to lead from the front in India’s enterprise AI story.
