MAM
Sarovar Hotels welcomes Nitika Khanna as director of marketing & communications
MUMBAI: In a move that underscores its commitment to building a powerhouse leadership team, Sarovar Hotels has appointed Nitika Khanna as its new director of marketing & communications. With a reputation for crafting compelling brand narratives and a proven track record in strategic partnerships and digital marketing, Khanna is set to amplify Sarovar’s brand presence and customer engagement.
A seasoned professional with rich industry experience, Khanna has played a pivotal role in shaping the marketing trajectories of Yatra, Fcb Ulka, Euro Rscg, UTV, and Org-Marg. Her expertise in brand positioning and communications will be instrumental in fortifying Sarovar Hotels’ market leadership while expanding its outreach and engagement strategies.
With Sarovar Hotels expanding its footprint across India, Nepal, and Africa, Khanna steps into her new role at a critical juncture. Her appointment is part of the group’s strategic push to elevate its branding, digital presence, and customer engagement initiatives.
Sarovar Hotels SVP – commercial Akshay Thusoo expressed enthusiasm about the appointment, stating, “We are delighted to welcome Nitika to Sarovar Hotels. Her extensive leadership in marketing and communications will be instrumental in shaping our brand’s growth story, strengthening stakeholder relations, and elevating our presence in the highly competitive hospitality sector. We look forward to her contributions.”
Khanna’s marketing prowess and innovation-driven approach position her perfectly to lead Sarovar’s branding initiatives, reinforcing the company’s commitment to excellence and industry-leading hospitality.
AD Agencies
Abhay Duggal joins JioStar as director of Hindi GEC ad sales
The streaming giant brings in a seasoned revenue hand as the battle for Hindi television advertising heats up
MUMBAI: Abhay Duggal has a new desk, and JioStar has a new weapon. The media and entertainment veteran has joined JioStar as director of entertainment ad sales for Hindi general entertainment channels, adding 17 years of hard-won revenue experience to one of India’s most powerful broadcasting operations.
Duggal is no stranger to big portfolios or bruising markets. Before joining JioStar, he spent a brief stint at Republic World as deputy general manager and north regional head for ad sales. Before that, he put in three years at Enterr10 Television, where he ran the north region for Dangal TV and Dangal 2, two of India’s leading free-to-air Hindi channels. The north alone accounted for more than 50 per cent of total channel revenue on his watch, a number that tends to get attention in any sales meeting.
His longest stint was at Zee Entertainment Enterprises, where he spent over six years rising to associate director of sales. There he commanded the Hindi movies cluster across seven channels, owned more than half of north India’s revenue across flagship properties including Zee TV and &TV, and closed marquee sponsorships across the Indian Premier League, Zee Rishtey Awards and Dance India Dance. He also handled monetisation for the English movies and entertainment cluster and the global news channel WION, a portfolio that would stretch most sales teams twice his size.
Earlier in his career Duggal closed what was then a Rs 3 crore single deal at Reliance Broadcast Network, one of the largest in Indian radio at the time, before that he helped launch and monetise JAINHITS, India’s first HITS-based cable and satellite platform.
His edge, by his own account, lies in marrying data and instinct: translating audience trends, inventory signals and client demands into long-term partnerships built on cost-per-rating-point discipline rather than short-term deal chasing. In a media landscape being reshaped by streaming, fragmented attention and AI-driven advertising, that kind of rigour is increasingly rare and increasingly valuable.
JioStar, which blends the scale of Reliance’s Jio platform with the content firepower of Star, is doubling down on its advertising business at precisely the moment the Hindi GEC market is getting more competitive. Bringing in someone who has spent nearly two decades doing exactly this, across some of India’s most watched channels, is a pointed statement of intent. Duggal has spent his career turning audiences into revenue. JioStar is clearly betting he can do it again, and bigger.
