MAM
Re-Invent 2020: knowledge, inspiration & experience
MUMBAI: The esteemed OTT & Digital Marketing Innovation Awards in association with Promax is one proud bunch at this hour. After hosting a successful event today at Taj Santacruz in the presence of speakers & panelists, a room full of content creators, digital experts, innovators, marketing professionals, filmmakers and the who’s who from the Indian OTT & digital industry, the event did full justice to its theme for the year – ‘Digital Re-Invent 2020’.
The conference kick-started with a welcome message from the event’s conference chair, Rajiv Bakshi, CEO of Reliance Big Synergy Media.
Insightful and inspirational panel sessions followed through including ‘Keynote Mastermind’, hosted by ZEE5’s CEO Tarun Katial, who said ‘At every juncture in this industry the opportunity is great but also the responsibility is humungous. How quickly people turn to digital media depends on all of us. Before creating content, we need to understand the market, the consumer, the potential and much more’.
‘OTT Visionaries – Re-Invent 2020’ led by Raj Nayak, Director & MD of House of Cheer Network brought about interesting discussions on monetizing the platforms and their brand USP. The panel was
attended by an Karan Bedi, CEO of MX Player, Kranti Gada, COO of Shemaroo Entertainment Limited, Gourav Rakshit, COO of Viacom18 Digital Ventures and Vishnu Mohta, Co-Founder of hoichoi. This session brimmed with substance and imagination in and was remarkably insightful. The next session, ‘The Emerging Content Opportunities’ kept everyone engaged with an exemplary line- up of programming heads and content savants representing the best OTT brands in the country. The panelists in this fiery session included Monika Shergill, Director of International Originals at Netflix India, Aparna Acharekar, Programming Head at ZEE5, Gautam Talwar, Chief Content Officer at MX Player, Aparna Purohit, Head of India Originals at Amazon Prime Video and Saugata Mukherjee, Head of Original Content on Sony Liv. The candid talk ‘Break the Rules’ with director duo Raj & DK hosted by VJ Anusha Dandekar was particularly popular amongst the crowd and received a great response. There was also a power- packed case study led session ‘Top Re-Invent Brand Strategies Showcase’ showcasing brand success stories of the leaders of the digital industry- Facebook, YouTube and Tik Tok presented by Prashant Sharma, Satya Raghavan and Ahteram Uddin respectively.
The cutting-edge discussions were followed by the much-awaited OTT & Digital Marketing Innovation Awards. Running for the first time this year, the awards acknowledged and celebrated this year’s greatest and the most quality-driven teams in the OTT & digital landscape. Netflix and Hotstar were the biggest champions of the evening with a tie at 5 trophies each. Close behind were Amazon Prime Video and ZEE5 who won the popular “Platform of the Year”. While Amazon Prime Video’s ‘The Family Man’ swept the award for the ‘Best Web Series National’, ‘Queen’ from MX Player was the gold winner in the ‘Best Web Series Regional’ category. Other notable winners included Nawazuddin Siddique as the ‘Best Male Lead of The Year’ for Sacred Games, Shefali Shah as the ‘Best Female Lead of The Year’ for Delhi Crime,, Hotstar for the ‘Best Content Marketing by a Brand on a Digital Platform’ for Game of Thrones and Malishka, who won a gold for ‘Best Digital Influencer of The Year’.
Speaking about the enormous success of the event, Rajika Mittra, Country Head, India, Hong Kong and the Philippines of Promax India, said, “We take great pride in setting a standard for innovation and creativity in the industry. This event is a testament to the skill, ingenuity, and vision of content creators and storytellers in the OTT & digital industry across the nation. We are ecstatic we were able to radiate the sheer-hard work and dedication of the deserving winners’.
In their debut year this season, OTT & Digital Innovation Awards gave out 16 golds and 16 silvers.
Brands
Muthoot FinCorp names Arun Kumar COO & Harjit Singh Takkar chief distribution officer
Leadership hires to boost operations and widen pan-India reach
THIRUVANANTHPURAM: Muthoot FinCorp has strengthened its top deck with the appointment of Arun Kumar B as chief operating officer and Harjit Singh Takkar as chief distribution officer, sharpening its focus on scale, speed and service as it pushes into its next phase of growth.
The flagship financial services arm of the 138-year-old Muthoot Pappachan Group, popularly known as Muthoot Blue, is expanding both muscle and mindset. With more than 3,750 branches nationwide and its digital platform, the Muthoot FinCorp ONE app, the company is betting on tighter execution and wider reach to stay ahead in an increasingly competitive lending market.
Arun Kumar B steps in with nearly two decades of experience cutting across financial services, technology transformation and customer analytics. He previously worked with CreditAccess Grameen, where he led enterprise-wide technology and data strategy initiatives and played a pivotal role during a major merger in the microfinance space. His work spanned integrating operations and products while scaling lending and non-credit offerings such as insurance and pensions.
At Muthoot FinCorp, Arun will steer operational excellence and strategic growth initiatives, aligning teams and processes to deliver sharper efficiency across the business. A gold medallist from Anna University and a postgraduate from IIM Indore, he also holds certifications in design thinking, Blue Ocean Strategy and business analytics.
Harjit Singh Takkar takes on the newly created role of chief distribution officer, reporting directly to the chief executive officer. The position is designed to energise the company’s distribution engine and bring greater governance and agility across its branch network.
Takkar brings over 28 years of retail banking experience, having held senior leadership roles at IndusInd Bank, Bandhan Bank, Yes Bank and ICICI Bank. Known for scaling branch networks and building high-performing teams, he combines distribution expertise with governance depth as a qualified company secretary with a master’s degree in finance and control.
In his new role, Takkar will oversee branch business and distribution channels, with a clear brief to expand reach, lift productivity and reinforce the company’s pan-India presence.
Commenting on the appointments, Muthoot FinCorp Ltd. chief executive officer Shaji Varghese, said the company continues to invest in leadership as it scales. “Our purpose is to improve the financial well-being of the common man. As we grow, strengthening leadership across key functions is important to ensure consistency in execution and customer experience,” he said.
With complementary strengths in operations and distribution now in place, Muthoot FinCorp appears set to move from steady expansion to sharper acceleration, backed by people, process and technology working in concert.
