Digital
Truecaller dials up the drama with ‘Play’
MUMBAI: Truecaller Ads is turning up the volume on mobile advertising with the launch of Truecaller Play, a shiny new toolbox of rich media ad formats designed to captivate consumers in a mobile-first world. This isn’t your standard banner fare — it’s high-impact, high-recall, and built to feel native in a user’s everyday digital rhythm.
Touted as the next evolution in brand storytelling, Truecaller Play lets advertisers serve video-first, interactive creatives right inside the app’s daily touchpoints. With users already engaged and distractions at bay, brands now have a golden opportunity to grab attention where it matters most — during moments of pure, undivided focus.
The new offering compliments Truecaller’s existing heavy-hitters — the 3 billion daily Roadblock and the Truecaller Masthead — by offering an added layer of creative freedom, all powered by the platform’s enviable trove of first-party data. With over 10,000 advertisers on board and more than 5 billion daily brand impressions, the scale is nothing short of staggering.
Truecaller VP, global ad sales business, Hemant Arora said, “At Truecaller ads, we’ve always believed that trust and utility are the cornerstones of meaningful engagement. With Truecaller Play, we’re not just introducing another ad product; we’re offering brands a rare opportunity to connect during moments of genuine user focus. It’s about placing your story exactly where attention is highest and distractions are lowest. That’s the power and promise of Truecaller Play.”
What’s in the playbook?
● Custom rich nedia formats: From snackable videos to cinematic ad experiences, tailored to drive everything from awareness to conversions.
● Native integration: Ads that feel like part of the flow, not an interruption.
● Creative in tow: Truecaller Ads’ in-house team helps brands craft thumb-stopping visuals.
● Precision at scale: Target users with laser accuracy, thanks to proprietary user data.
Whether it’s a D2C disruptor or a legacy FMCG giant, Truecaller Play gives brands the creative arsenal to move beyond static displays and into the age of mobile magic — all while keeping users, well, on the line.
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.
