MAM
#StageBadlega – For Arts, Artists and the Audiences
It was in the early days of the lockdown when a few arts and media organisations came together to face the COVID-19 crisis and its impact of the live arts space. 50 days later, this group has ideated, debated and created stayIN aLIVE – an artist support platform – which will launch its first event on 16th May 2020. Over 60 artists, 24 hours of non-stop content, across multiple platforms!
#StageBadlega has never been truer than today. The ‘stage’ is no longer the wood panelled, sprawling space with clear entry/ exit points and synchronised lighting. It is now a soothing cosy corner of the library or a neatly organised living room dotted with personal photos. New trends are currently being witnessed but what happens once this lockdown is lifted? What is the long-term solution for freelancing artists and the live events industry to become self-sufficient and holistically support itself?
‘StayIN aLIVE’ aims to build this long-term, sustainable platform for artists to nurture, support and strengthen each other in the coming years. Fuelled with a deep love and admiration for the live arts and performance industry, this is a collective of organisations and individuals, hoping to create a movement of awareness and self-sufficiency for the live industry. The aim is to educate, inspire and support artists and at the forefront of that aim and vision is a commitment to cultivate best practices, encourage thought leadership and become a compassionate, yet impactful and sustained, voice of advocacy for government policies related to the live arts industry.
The stayIN aLIVE foundation, a collective between Kommune, Big Bang Music, Tabhrasa, Priyanka Khimani, KWAN, OML, The ArtX Company, Alok Parande, Paytm Insider, Shark & Ink, Tape A Tale, Artist Aadmi, Unmute, Women of India, Gully Gang and Tarsame Mittal Talent Management – promises that 16th May is only the beginning of a long and solid journey of the foundation.
On 16th May, performing artists from various fields will cover a range of topics, such as, ‘How does one deal with a creator’s block’; or ‘Know your digital rights as an artist’; or even jam with fellow artists on your screen! We are talking of artists including Uday Benegal, Naezy, Kubbra Sait, Tanmay Bhat, Shilpa Rao, Nakash Aziz, Dualist Inquiry, Nikhita Gandhi, Suhani Singh, Nikhil D’souza, Tejas Menon who will be sharing their stories, learnings and art, all through the day.
You can connect with stayIN aLIVE on any of these social media platforms:
Facebook – www.facebook.com/stayinaliveorg
Instagram – www.instagram.com/stayinaliveorg
Twitter – www.twitter.com/stayinaliveorg
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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.
