MAM
Ravi Kiran kicks off new startup with 3 partners
MUMBAI: Four former corporate leaders – Ravi Kiran (Starcom MediaVest Group former CEO-South East & South Asia), Suhail Kazmi (Yes Bank former President – retail banking and wealth management), Sanjay Barkataki (Publicis Groupe Media former India CFO) and Subodh Srivastav (Idea Cellular and MTS former COO) – today announced a new startup focused on businesses in tier -II and tier – III towns.
All four opted out of their respective corporate leadership positions between February and December 2010 and founded the venture in July 2011.
The growth advisory company, named Friends of Ambition, will work closely with ambitious enterprises and guide them to achieve their growth goals over a three to five year period, the company said in a statement. The company reckons an addressable market of 51,000 firms in sixty-two identified towns.
“It is our belief that businesses in Middle India have a real opportunity to drive the next few decades of dramatic growth in economic value and societal impact. We are strongly inspired by their aspirations, which have risen manifold over the years. At the same time, we have observed a palpable feeling of helplessness and growing frustration,” Kiran said.
Kazmi added, “The frustration arises mostly out of a real access gap that exists today between Middle India and Metro India, which forces most business owners to scale down their ambitions. They feel an acute deficit in access to talent, managerial and functional expertise and private capital, which is available more easily to enterprises in the big cities.”
The company said that this “Access Gap”, the company will attempt to bridge, in its endeavor to nurture and fuel the dreams of ambitious enterprises. Besides providing a very active, hands-on advisory service and helping implement decisions and strategy, the company will also provide its clients with a growth ecosystem, built on a powerful network of partners under the umbrella of ‘Allies of Ambitionsm‘. The Allies Of Ambition network will consist of several firms across nine chosen functional domains – from legal, technology, human resource, tax consulting & audit and talent recruitment to marketing research, digital marketing, advertising and financial capital.
Srivastav added, “Our allies are an integral part of our value delivery model. We believe their expertise, combined with our guidance, and real world experience in scaling businesses, will work powerfully for our clients. This is classic gestalt effect – the whole being bigger than the sum of parts.”
Friends of Ambition said in the statement that the company believes that the traditional tag of SME that is put on an ambitious business is inappropriate and probably anachronistic.
Barkataki said, “We reject the tag of SME. That phrase, no matter how popular and easy-on-tongue, insults ambition, rather than respecting it. We describe our client segment as REMI – Rising Enterprises of Middle India, a phrase we find significantly more aspirational and dignified.”
Friends of Ambition is currently engaged with three clients and eleven alliance partners.
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.
