MAM
Qualam 2001 : Shidhar Raghvan
Scriptwriting for Thrillers
Scriptwriter Sridhar Raghavan, who spoke on developing thrillers as a genre, regaled audiences with his experiences in the field, and also gave some guidelines to budding writers.
“Check your ideas thoroughly, try and innovate within existing structures, do variations of story outlines and counter criticism constructively”, he said. Stressing on the importance of research, he said a writer has to think about practical aspects involved in the actual making of a serial while visualizing scenes. Tools specific to the thriller genre include timing your script well, increasing the pace to create the necessary drama, creating false drama to keep up the suspense within a scene, using hooks and teasers like dramatic opening sequences and keeping twists and turns for the ad breaks all go to make good thriller serials, he said.
Raghavan, who started out as a journalist before drifting into TV scriptwriting, said a writer needs to ‘boil a scene’, meaning keeping a scene at simmering point just enough to hold viewer interest by extracting the maximum dramatic potential out of a scene. Best known for scripting the gripping CID series on Sony, Raghavan said a writer ought to keep situations within practical shooting possibilities, keep his research skills sharpened all the time and try and avoid jargon at all times.
Brands
Zepto names Saurabh Kabra vice president for non-trade advertising
Former blinkit and ITC executive to drive Zepto’s ad-led growth
BENGALURU: Zepto has elevated Saurabh Kabra to vice president—non-trade advertising, partnerships and catalogue, underscoring the quick-commerce firm’s push to deepen high-margin revenue streams beyond deliveries.
Based in Bengaluru, Kabra will lead the strategic expansion of Zepto’s advertising and partnerships ecosystem. He was previously senior director and head of the non-trade advertising business, where he played a central role in building the company’s ad-led monetisation playbook.
Since joining Zepto, Kabra has worked closely with the chief executive’s office on strategic initiatives, contributing to the company’s rapid scale-up in India’s intensely competitive quick-commerce market. His elevation comes as platforms increasingly court brand advertising to steady margins and diversify revenue.
Before Zepto, Kabra held senior growth roles at Blinkit, serving as associate director of growth and city CEO for Hyderabad, where he led regional expansion and operational scaling.
Earlier in his career, he spent several years at ITC Limited, managing brands such as Classmate and Paperkraft and overseeing sales operations in the personal care business. He is an alumnus of Indian Institute of Management Calcutta.
Industry executives view the appointment as a clear signal that Zepto is sharpening its focus on advertising, partnerships and catalogue-led monetisation: areas increasingly discussed by investors as critical to improving unit economics in quick commerce.
