AD Agencies
Social Panga marks a decade of success
Mumbai: Social Panga, an integrated creative and digital marketing agency now part of LS Digital, proudly celebrates its tenth anniversary, marking a decade in the industry. Founded in 2014 by Himanshu Arora and Gaurav Arora with a small team of three in Bangalore, the agency has grown into a robust team of over 400 across Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, and Dubai.
Social Panga offers a wide range of services, including Creative and Digital Strategy, Media Planning and Buying, Branding and Marketing Communications, Influencer Marketing, Video Production, and technology-driven brand solutions. To commemorate #ADecadeofMafias, the agency has released a rap anthem reflecting their journey and unique vibe.
Co-founder and chief mafia Himanshu Arora said, “It’s been a great ride, packed with lessons, laughs, and a few late-night ‘what are we doing?’ moments, all filled with just gratitude. I’m beyond stoked about the challenges we’ve crushed and the wins we’ve celebrated, but most of all, I’m grateful to everyone who’s been part of this 10-year Panga. As we gear up for the next chapter, we’re doubling down on our people (mafia)-first mantra, eyeing new global markets, and solution-first approach. Honestly, it feels like we’re just getting started, and I can’t wait to see where this crazy journey takes us next!”
Co-founder and chief mafia Gaurav Arora added, “10 years! It’s amazing how fast the time has flown by! This #ADecadeofMafias at Social Panga has been an exhilarating journey, filled with new opportunities, meaningful experiences, and tremendous growth. Despite intense competition in the industry, we haven’t just held our ground—we’ve flourished. As we celebrate our 10th anniversary, it’s clear that our well-timed decisions and strategic moves have been pivotal to our success. We’re thrilled to embark on the next chapter of our journey and look forward to sharing it with all our well-wishers!”
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AD Agencies
Kevin Vaz opens FICCI-EY report with a declaration: India’s M&E industry set to breach Rs 3 trillion mark by 2027
In a keynote address at the FICCI-EY report launch, Kevin Vaz says sport, AI and the connected TV boom are driving a multi-screen revolution with no signs of slowing
MUMBAI: India’s media and entertainment industry is growing faster than the economy, reshaping global benchmarks and is on course to blow past Rs 3 trillion by 2027. That was the headline message from Kevin Vaz, chairman of the FICCI Media and Entertainment Committee and chief executive of entertainment at JioStar, who delivered the opening keynote at the launch of the FICCI-EY Media and Entertainment Report 2026 in Mumbai on Monday. He did not waste much time on caveats.
The industry hit Rs 2.78 trillion in 2025, outpacing GDP per capita growth and surpassing even last year’s bullish forecasts. Vaz described the year in three words: scale, convergence, transformation. The numbers, he suggested, were only half the story. The other half was how that growth was happening.
Digital has become the industry’s largest segment, driven by advertising, subscriptions and commerce. But Vaz was quick to puncture the familiar narrative of digital killing everything else. India, he argued, is not an either-or market. It is an AND market. Connected TV is surging. Linear television, mobile, films and print are all still expanding. AVGC, the animation, visual effects, gaming and comics sector, is emerging as a serious growth engine, opening new storytelling formats and new global revenue streams. Nothing, he said, is replacing anything. Everything is reinforcing everything else.
Nowhere is that more vivid than in sport. In an on-demand world where audiences can watch anything, anytime, Indians still show up live. “Sports don’t fragment audiences,” Vaz said. “They unite them, just on different screens.” The ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 made the point emphatically. During the final, JioHotstar delivered 72.5 million concurrent streams, a global record. Group chats exploded. Families renegotiated control of the television. Advertisers, Vaz noted with undisguised relish, stopped asking where audiences were and started asking how fast they could get in.
Cinema had its own landmark year. More than 1,900 films were released, with several crossing the Rs 1 billion mark. Dhurandhar was singled out as proof that Indian audiences will still turn up in large numbers for content that grips them. Live experiences, too, are getting bigger and more immersive, though Vaz suggested the surface has barely been scratched.
Then there is artificial intelligence, which he described as quietly, and sometimes not so quietly, reshaping everything. AI is enabling personalisation, efficiency and scale, but Vaz argued its deeper significance lies in what it is doing to creativity itself. He pointed to Mahabharat: Ek Dharmayudh, billed as the world’s first AI-produced show, as evidence that the technology can amplify creative ambition rather than hollow it out. He also used the platform to call on Indian policymakers to engage seriously with the creative industry on AI and copyright, ensuring that creators are fairly compensated as the technology spreads.
The picture that emerges from the report, and from Vaz’s keynote, is of an industry that has stopped thinking of itself as a fast-growing emerging market and started thinking of itself as a global template. Scale, diversity and innovation, he said, are no longer in tension in India. They are coexisting, and the rest of the world is taking notes.
The Rs 3 trillion milestone is two years away. As the man who chairs the committee that shapes the industry’s policy agenda and runs the country’s most powerful entertainment platform, Vaz set the tone for the day with characteristic directness: India’s media business is not just chasing growth. It is deciding what the country talks about at dinner. That is a different kind of power altogether.
