MAM
Portfolio Evening champions the next wave of strategists
MUMBAI: The country’s strategy scene got a lively shake-up as Warc and DDB Mudra Group hosted the first-ever Portfolio Evening: Strategy Edition in Mumbai, giving young planners a rare chance to put their ideas under the spotlight.
The industry-first initiative brought together 40 emerging strategists with 0–5 years of experience and 20 seasoned jurors from leading agencies and brands. Each participant showcased two pieces of work, diving into problem-definition, insight-mining and strategic recommendations. The atmosphere felt part masterclass, part creative speed-dating, with participants receiving direct, practical and candid advice from some of India’s sharpest strategic thinkers.
DDB Mudra Group national strategy head Shashank Lanjekar, said the new format offered the kind of springboard young talent often misses. He added that having strategy veteran Madhukar Sabnavis in the room uplifted the evening, as he broke down what defines a truly powerful strategy using well-loved brand examples.
From Warc, India Editor Biprorshee Das highlighted the growing recognition of strategy as the engine of modern marketing, noting that the event mirrors Warc’s mission to build braver and more effective thinking through evidence-driven practice.
At the end of the reviews, three rising stars: Khushi Sharma, Chintan Mehta and Khushi Karve, were named the winners of the debut edition. Their prize: exclusive access to Warc’s Creative Impact Unpacked from Cannes, giving them a close look at global creative effectiveness.
Warc also presented insights from its new report, The Future of Strategy 2025, outlining how AI, culture and creativity are reshaping the strategist’s role in today’s fast-moving marketing landscape.
The evening drew an impressive jury lineup featuring Aditi Patwardhan, Anirban Mozumdar, Dheeraj Sinha, Ekta Relan, Ganapathy Balagopalan, Jitender Dabas, Kawal Shoor, Kirti Meera Sharad, Layla Khan, Mehak Jaini, Menaka Menon, Noor Samra, Prem Narayan, Rajesh Sharma, S Subramanyeswar, Sabiha Khan, Sanchari Chakrabarty, Shashank Lanjekar, T Gangadhar and Toru Jhaveri.
With its mix of mentorship, industry insight and real-world critique, Portfolio Evening: Strategy Edition set a fresh tone for how the next generation of thinkers can learn, grow and shape the future of effective marketing.
MAM
Paramount set to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery in $81 billion deal
Shareholders back merger, combined entity could reshape streaming and studios.
MUMBAI: Lights, camera… consolidation, Hollywood’s latest blockbuster might be happening off-screen. Shareholders of Warner Bros. Discovery have voted in favour of selling the company to Paramount in a deal valued at $81 billion rising to nearly $111 billion including debt setting the stage for one of the biggest shake-ups in modern media. The proposed merger, still subject to regulatory approvals, would bring together a vast portfolio spanning HBO Max, CNN, and franchises such as Harry Potter under the same umbrella as Paramount’s own heavyweights, including Top Gun and CBS.
At the heart of the deal is streaming scale. Executives have indicated plans to combine HBO Max and Paramount+ into a single platform, potentially creating a stronger challenger to giants like Netflix and Amazon’s Prime Video. Current market data suggests HBO Max holds around 12 per cent of US on-demand subscriptions, compared to Paramount+’s 3 per cent, together still trailing Netflix’s 19 per cent and Disney’s combined 27 per cent via Disney+ and Hulu.
Paramount CEO David Ellison has signalled that while platforms may merge, HBO’s creative identity will remain intact, stating the brand should “stay HBO” even within a broader ecosystem.
Beyond streaming, the deal would redraw the map for film production. Combining two of Hollywood’s oldest studios Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros., the new entity aims to scale output to over 30 films annually, while maintaining a 45-day theatrical window. Warner Bros. currently commands around 21 per cent of the US box office, compared to Paramount’s 6 per cent, underscoring the strategic weight of the acquisition.
But scale comes with scrutiny. Critics warn that fewer players could mean reduced consumer choice, rising subscription costs, and potential job cuts as the combined company looks to streamline overlapping operations while managing billions in debt.
The news business, too, faces a reset. CNN would join forces at least structurally with Paramount-owned CBS, raising questions about editorial independence and positioning. The merger has already drawn political attention in the United States, particularly given perceived ties between the Ellison family and Donald Trump, though the company maintains that newsroom autonomy will be preserved.
If approved, the deal would mark another milestone in Hollywood’s consolidation wave shrinking the industry’s traditional “big six” studios to a “big four”, with Paramount joining Disney, Universal, and Sony at the top table.
In an industry built on storytelling, this merger may well become its most consequential plot twist yet.
