MAM
Vandana Ramkrishna rejoins Madison Media as Sr GM
MUMBAI: Madison Media Sigma has roped in Vandana Ramkrishna to handle its Godrej account.
Ramkrishna re-joins Madison as Sr GM and will be based in Mumbai.
Ramkrishna said, “I am happy to be a part of the Madison family once again and looking forward to lead a dynamic team and come up with innovative solutions for Godrej.”
Madison Media Sigma COO Vanita Keswani added, “I am delighted to have Vandana join my team and am sure she will be a great asset to our team and will strengthen our offering to our marquee client Godrej.”
Vandana, who joins from Zenith Optimedia, brings in 15 years of experience in media. She has worked with agencies like Lodestar Initiative Media, Saatchi and Saatchi and Leo Burnett in India and US.
MAM
Sameer Nair shares heartfelt note as he exits Applause Entertainment
After nine years building the streamer’s content engine, one of India’s best-known TV men is moving on
MUMBAI: Sameer Nair is out. The chief executive of Applause Entertainment, the content studio backed by Kumar Mangalam Birla’s media empire, has announced his departure after nearly nine years at the helm, closing the chapter on one of Indian entertainment’s more quietly consequential careers.
Nair, who built Applause from the ground up in its current avatar, oversaw a slate that spanned Indian originals and international adaptations, threading together a hub-and-spoke business model that partnered with streaming platforms, broadcasters and production houses alike. The results were uneven, as they always are in content, but the ambition was not.
In a post on LinkedIn, Nair was generous to his outgoing patron. He thanked Birla for being an “inspirational boss and a great patron of the arts,” and signed off with a cheerful “Au Revoir” and a promise to remain Applause’s biggest cheerleader. Whether that sentiment survives the next chapter remains to be seen.
No successor has been named. Applause Entertainment did not immediately comment.
Nair built the machine. Now someone else has to run it — and in a streaming market that is simultaneously consolidating and convulsing, that is no small ask.
