MAM
Pratap Bose’s ‘conglomerate of agencies’ to launch in 25 days
MUMBAI: Over the last one month, a spurt of new agencies have been added to the Indian media, advertising and digital sectors. Adding to the new launches will be ad man Pratap Bose’s new ‘conglomerate of agencies’, which is just 25 days away from launch.
Putting all speculations to rest, Bose, the former DDB Mudra Group chief operating officer, confirms the development to Indiantelevision.com saying, “We are 25 days away from the launch and there is a lot of work happening on the back end. We are yet to decide the agency’s name and logo. Everything is slated for announcement in time to come. We want to build the organisation into a one stop shop for the brands’ needs.”
According to Bose, his new venture will be a “media communications conglomerate” and will have multiple equity stake holders.
The new venture will drive core competencies across different divisions in the media, be it creative, communications, branded content, outdoor, media planning and buying, retail and digital amongst others.
“Apart from this, the conglomerate will consist of five-six companies, each focusing on their expertise. Initially the agency will not cater to advertising and communications, but we do intend to expand those verticals later,” Bose informs.
Bose also reveals that the agency is on the look-out for various investment options. While he refused to disclose any figures, reports doing the round say that the agency is looking for an initial investment of around $10 million.
Bose, who has more than two decades of experience in advertising, has been working on the new venture for the last four-five months and is in the process of building a formidable team. Joining him is Mandeep Malhotra, who recently quit DDB MudraMax, where he was president and head of its OOH, experiential business and retail cluster.
Last year Bose quit DDB Mudra Group as COO, where he worked for six years. Prior to that,he has worked with Ogilvy & Mather for 15 years in various positions. He is also the president of The Ad Club.
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.
