MAM
Sercon 141 ups Rajesh Ghatge to CEO
MUMBAI: Bates 141 has promoted Rajesh Ghatge as the chief executive officer of its specialised “below the line” marketing services agency, 141 Sercon.
Ghatge was formerly the executive director and COO at 141 Sercon.
In addition, Ghatge is also appointed to the Executive Committee (EXCO) of the Bates India Group. The Board is headed by Group CEO Sandeep Pathak and includes India chairman and regional ECD Sonal Dabral, regional planning director Dheeraj Sinha, 141 Wallstreet VP Praveen Vadhera and finance director Dinesh Shetty.
In his new role as the CEO, Ghatge will build on the agency‘s expertise in “intelligent activation” – solutions which engage consumers across touch points and enable them to experience brands, products and services. With the use of proprietary tools and technology, the agency is able to deliver large scale, ROI-driven activations for B2B and B2C clients across Asia.
Ghatge co-founded Sercon in 1996, which was later acquired by Bates in 2007. He was instrumental in leading Sercon to become one of India‘s largest activation and marketing services agencies with a footprint across India and Southeast Asia.
Ghatge has more than 15 years of experience in planning, creative and execution of regional and local campaigns for leading brands including Bausch & Lomb, Carlsberg, Castrol, Nokia, Oracle, Shriram Life Insurance and Sun Microsystems.
Pathak said, “Since Sercon joined the Bates family, it has played a very strategic role. Together with our advertising and design units, and out-of-home and retail offering, we have the full capability to help our clients drive maximum engagement, by getting brands to become the subject of new conversations.”
Ghatge added, “Rapid change is happening constantly and all around us in. Clients want to understand changes in consumer‘s media and shopping habits and what are the implications for engaging them effectively. I look forward to working closely with the Bates regional and local leadership teams to grow our expertise, so that we can deliver more innovative and effective solutions for our clients, and bring people closer to brands.”
Dabral stated, “Rajesh has been key to driving Sercon to become one of the top ranking activation agencies in India and Southeast Asia. Rajesh will continue to grow our specialized skills and solutions for India and regional clients by helping them to better engage consumers, generate demand and influence preference.”
In India, the Bates operations spans Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata, and includes the largest retail and OOH network in India across 20 states and into 400 rural towns. It offers full integrated disciplines – brand strategy, advertising, design, outdoor/OOH, retail, B2B and B2C activation, digital, CRM and event management.
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.
