MAM
Sanket Kulkarni joins Ormax Media as head – business development (theatrical)
Mumbai: Media insights firm Ormax Media has appointed Sanket Kulkarni as head – business development (theatrical). In this role, Kulkarni will be spearheading the company’s business development and account servicing initiatives for the Indian film industry. He and his team will work closely with leading film studios, production houses and marketing agencies in the areas of content, marketing, and business strategy.
Ormax Media has been working actively with the Indian film industry for 15 years now, and has developed several tools that are used widely across the industry, such as Ormax Cinematix (campaign tracking), Ormax Moviescope (film testing), Ormax First Draft (script testing), Ormax Cine Sense (cinema audience profiling), Ormax Campaign Testing, etc. Ormax Media works closely with more than 35 business partners in the theatrical sector, including Disney, Sony Pictures, Viacom 18 Studios, Dharma Productions, Zee Studios, PVR, Yash Raj Films, etc.
Kulkarni joins Ormax Media’s formidable and experienced leadership team, which is headed by founder-CEO Shailesh Kapoor. Keerat Grewal heads Business Development for Streaming, TV & Brands domains. Amit Bhatia heads Audience Tracking, Mitesh Thakkar heads Content & Campaign Testing, and Khushroo Dumasia heads Operations & Technology.
Kulkarni started his career at Ormax Media itself, in 2014, as a part of the Film Insights team. After spending four years in the organisation, he moved on to ZEE5, followed by Sony LIV, where he specialized in content strategy and viewership maximization, respectively. He brings with him a strong understanding of the Indian entertainment industry landscape, and will be leading Ormax Media’s efforts to collaborate with the Indian film industry in an exciting yet challenging phase that the industry currently finds itself in.
Speaking about Kulkarni’s appointment, Ormax Media founder-CEO Shailesh Kapoor said, “We are excited to have Sanket on board as a part of our leadership team. His varied experience across the Indian media industry, combined with his passion for cinema, will help us further strengthen our relationships in the Indian film industry”.
Speaking about his new role, Kulkarni said, “Post the pandemic, the theatrical business in India has been in a constant state of flux, which has resulted in recalibration across the value chain. The evolving nature of the film business in India makes audience insights and analytics more relevant than ever before. Given its repository of data and audience understanding, Ormax Media is poised to play a crucial role in the growth of the Indian film business over the next decade. I am looking forward to collaborating with the best minds in the industry, in their pursuit to take more informed and audience-centric business decisions.”
MAM
Paramount set to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery in $81 billion deal
Shareholders back merger, combined entity could reshape streaming and studios.
MUMBAI: Lights, camera… consolidation, Hollywood’s latest blockbuster might be happening off-screen. Shareholders of Warner Bros. Discovery have voted in favour of selling the company to Paramount in a deal valued at $81 billion rising to nearly $111 billion including debt setting the stage for one of the biggest shake-ups in modern media. The proposed merger, still subject to regulatory approvals, would bring together a vast portfolio spanning HBO Max, CNN, and franchises such as Harry Potter under the same umbrella as Paramount’s own heavyweights, including Top Gun and CBS.
At the heart of the deal is streaming scale. Executives have indicated plans to combine HBO Max and Paramount+ into a single platform, potentially creating a stronger challenger to giants like Netflix and Amazon’s Prime Video. Current market data suggests HBO Max holds around 12 per cent of US on-demand subscriptions, compared to Paramount+’s 3 per cent, together still trailing Netflix’s 19 per cent and Disney’s combined 27 per cent via Disney+ and Hulu.
Paramount CEO David Ellison has signalled that while platforms may merge, HBO’s creative identity will remain intact, stating the brand should “stay HBO” even within a broader ecosystem.
Beyond streaming, the deal would redraw the map for film production. Combining two of Hollywood’s oldest studios Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros., the new entity aims to scale output to over 30 films annually, while maintaining a 45-day theatrical window. Warner Bros. currently commands around 21 per cent of the US box office, compared to Paramount’s 6 per cent, underscoring the strategic weight of the acquisition.
But scale comes with scrutiny. Critics warn that fewer players could mean reduced consumer choice, rising subscription costs, and potential job cuts as the combined company looks to streamline overlapping operations while managing billions in debt.
The news business, too, faces a reset. CNN would join forces at least structurally with Paramount-owned CBS, raising questions about editorial independence and positioning. The merger has already drawn political attention in the United States, particularly given perceived ties between the Ellison family and Donald Trump, though the company maintains that newsroom autonomy will be preserved.
If approved, the deal would mark another milestone in Hollywood’s consolidation wave shrinking the industry’s traditional “big six” studios to a “big four”, with Paramount joining Disney, Universal, and Sony at the top table.
In an industry built on storytelling, this merger may well become its most consequential plot twist yet.
