MAM
Urbanrise unveils Gauri Khan-designed Whispers of Sky in Chennai
Luxury project spans 6.09 acres with 623 residences; celebrity-inspired living launches new campaign.
MUMBAI: Urbanrise just invited Chennai to live like a celebrity because when Gauri Khan designs your home, even the skyline starts posing for the ‘gram. Aditya Birla Group-backed Urbanrise has launched its latest luxury residential project, Whispers of Sky, in Sholinganallur, Chennai, with interiors and design vision led by celebrated designer Gauri Khan. The development, spanning approximately 6.09 acres, comprises 623 premium residences, including 3 BHK units and an exclusive 4 BHK tower featuring corner homes with no shared walls and expansive layouts for enhanced privacy.
To mark the unveiling, Urbanrise released a two-film campaign titled “Welcome to the Celebrity Life”, directed by acclaimed filmmaker Gautham Vasudev Menon. The series showcases Gauri Khan in her dual avatars: as a meticulous designer immersed in materiality and spatial composition, and as a celebrity icon embodying glamour and elevated living. The narrative bridges design excellence with aspirational lifestyle, positioning Whispers of Sky as a landmark address that brings celebrity-inspired living to the city.
The project introduces several standout amenities, including one of Chennai’s first dedicated Pickleball academies, a sport popular among global celebrities alongside a lavish clubhouse with a sky pool, salon, fitness studio and private mini theatre. Every element is curated to reflect privileges, privacy and prestige.
Urbanrise, chairman & managing director Manoj Namburu said, “Customer delight is the benchmark we hold ourselves to. By partnering with the best in design and execution, we ensure our customers are proud owners of homes that exceed expectations. Our collaboration with Gauri Khan Designs matches our organisation’s ethos, and I am confident that the discerning customers of Chennai will love this creation.”
Gauri Khan commented, “The design vision for Whispers of Sky focused on refinement and timeless appeal. The campaign captures that through its detailing and visual treatment.”
The campaign is now live across digital and social platforms. In a city racing toward new skylines, Urbanrise isn’t just building homes, it’s crafting addresses where every resident feels like the star of their own story, one elegantly designed corner at a time.
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.
