MAM
Publicis India appoints Nishant Jethi as ECD
MUMBAI: Publicis India today announced Nishant Jethi as its new executive creative director. Jethi, who will report to the company’s MD and COO Bobby Pawar, was a senior creative director at Ogilvy and Mather.
Based out of Mumbai, Jethi will be responsible for not only raising the creative bar but also overlooking art and enhancing the work culture.
His appointment is in line with the agency’s mandate to strengthen its creative function across various divisions given the influx of work from multiple brands like ZEE, Citibank, HDFC MF, Skoda, Nerolac, Bharti AXA etc. He will work alongside Ramakrishnan Hariharan, who had recently joined the agency as head of creative.
Publicis India COO Bobby Pawar said, “Nishant is probably the sanest crazy man I’ve met. Beneath his rather sedate appearance lies a mind that zips along strange paths. His unique way to seeing things, great sense of design, a passion for making things with his own hands will help us elevate our game even more. The last time we worked together the agency we were at rocked. This time should be no different.”
Publicis India MD Srija Chatterjee said, “The creative function at the agency is being repurposed to cater to the growing demands of Clients that are looking at integrated offerings in an innovative & real-time basis. We have been churning out some really great work in the past few months that are creating meaningful conversations in the marketplace and also aiding brands achieve their desired objective. Having resources like Nishant Jethi into our fold will only amplify the quality of our offering and put us on a higher pedestal to keep delivering more.”
In a career spanning over 13 years, Jethi has worked with several leading agencies with an aim to create memorable pieces of work that strike an emotional chord with the audiences. At his best, Jethi has delivered award winning work for clients like Savlon, JSW Cement, Amazon-Kindle/Firestick/Echo, Dove etc.
Prior to his Ogilvy stint, Jethi worked an associate creative director at DDB Mudra and Leo Burnett as art director. His body of work includes working on diverse brands like Radio City, Bajaj Electronics, ITC Hotels, Reliance MF, Bank of Baroda, Big Bazaar, Inorbit among others.
Commenting on his new role Publicis India, Jethi said, “Publicis India has done some remarkable work in the past and it feels great to be a part of this intrinsic culture. I am thrilled to work with Bobby Pawar along with Ramakrishnan Hariharan, since I have worked closely with both of them before, and together I believe we can achieve new heights. I am happy with the team and clientele, and feel super charged for the journey ahead.”
Apart from work, Jethi uses his expertise to create meaningful work in the realm of arts and design. He is adept at creating hand-crafted wooden toys, as the design process of making them involves conceptualising, sketching, wood cutting, painting skills that come naturally to him.
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.
