MAM
Pocket Aces unveils talent management division Clout
KOLKATA: Pocket Aces, India’s leading digital entertainment company, unveiled new branding for its talent management division, labeling it “Clout”.Clout, which means the ability to influence, will focus on exclusively representing the digital industry’s finest and most popular faces.
It will be responsible for offering comprehensive and fully integrated services, facilitating social media growth, IP creation, branded content and endorsements, PR and events, training across various skillsets, casting across all touchpoints including films, web series and TVCs. The team will also act as mentors and sounding boards for important career decisions in the fast-evolving media landscape. Exclusive talent will also have dedicated business managers to ensure high quality, high touch engagement.
Clout’s roster currently boasts of 50+ exclusive talents including popular faces like Barkha Singh, Ayush Mehra, Ahsaas Channa, Komal Pandey, Yashaswini Dayama, Viraj Ghelani, Kriti Vij, Pranay Manchanda, Vrushika Mehta, Disha Madan, in addition to 100+ non-exclusive talentClout has executed successful campaigns for brands like UberEats, Amazon Pay, Swarovski, Revv Cars, Hotstar, and Prime Video, Bumble, Aditya Birla Investing, to name a few. The wing has also played a pivotal role in casting talented actors like Akashdeep Arora in the movie Uri, Rohan Khurana in Thappad, Sukant Goel in Ghost Stories among many others.
Pocket Aces has a massive advantage compared to other talent management companies – they know how to build brands on digital, they have their own channels platforms to give the talent unparalleled visibility, and have a global footprint that the talent can leverage.
Speaking on the unveiling, Pocket Aces co-founder Aditi Shrivastava said, “We are thrilled to add Clout, another strong media brand, to our kitty. Ever since our inception, Pocket Aces has been discovering and giving a growth path to talented actors and creators via our own channels, as well as via our strong partnerships with brands and OTT platforms. Now with the creation of Clout, we are excited to formally spur the growth of this talent, build their individual brands, and give them visibility at a global level. In just a few months, we’ve built an extremely strong and passionate team, and are well on our way to becoming the #1 talent managers in the digital landscape.”
Clout co-lead Juhi Singh shared, “We’ve built out our talent wing with great care and aim to build a well-balanced pool of talent to represent. By focusing on casting or brand associations for talent most suited to their profile, we look forward to creating opportunities that will bring them in the forefront of some great shows, series, films and brands. From the casting viewpoint, many avenues are opening up where digital talent is front lining shows and films. Scoping these out for our talent is our primary objective and in order to achieve this, we are constantly working with industry’s leading producers, directors and casting agencies.”
Commenting on this announcement, Clout co-lead Vinay Pillai added, “Being a pioneer of creating original and noteworthy content, we see tremendous potential in Clout providing talented creators and actors a strong medium to collaborate with leading brands. We truly believe that our country is home for some outstanding talent and Clout will help them get the right opportunities at the right time. We have been successful with striking collaborations like Gillette Venus and we look forward to many more. We also plan to introduce workshops for our digital influencers in the near future. Having pioneered branded content on digital, we are excited to expand this out to creators we work with and further strengthen our partnerships with reputed brands.”
MUMBAI: In India’s fast-moving payments race, Visa has just swiped in a new leader. The company has named Suresh Sethi as its India country head, marking a key leadership shift as it sharpens its focus on digital payments growth in the market. Sethi steps into the role following his recent exit from Protean eGov Technologies, where he served as chief executive officer. He succeeds Sandeep Ghosh, who has moved on after more than four years at Visa to pursue an external opportunity.
The appointment comes at a time when Visa is doubling down on its expansion strategy across India and the wider region, deepening partnerships and accelerating adoption in an increasingly competitive digital payments ecosystem.
Sethi brings with him a broad, cross-market perspective shaped by decades of experience across corporate banking, retail financial services, mobile money and large-scale government technology initiatives. He began his career at Citigroup, where he spent 14 years working across India, Africa, South America and the United States, focusing on transaction banking services within the corporate bank.
His appointment signals a blend of institutional experience and market familiarity qualities that could prove critical as Visa navigates a landscape where fintech innovation, regulatory evolution and consumer adoption are all accelerating at once.
As digital payments in India continue to scale rapidly, the leadership change underscores a simple reality, in a market where every tap, scan and swipe counts, who leads the charge can matter just as much as the technology itself.
