MAM
Varun Dhir promoted to associate vice president – investment at Omnicom Media India
MUMBAI: Varun Dhir has been promoted to associate vice president – investment at Omnicom Media India, capping a nearly nine-year journey through the company’s media strategy and investment ranks. Dhir, who joined Omnicom in 2015 as associate director, most recently served as general manager – investments, shaping media planning and buying strategies across multiple markets.
Over the years, he has held senior roles in market planning and media strategy, including business director from 2021 to 2023 in Gurugram, leading teams on client servicing and OOH media. Prior to Omnicom, Dhir gained experience at Dish TV as senior manager – marketing, and earlier stints at Maxus as business group head and business manager, and OgilvyAction as account executive.
On his promotion, Dhir expressed gratitude for his mentors Yatin Ram Balyan and Ajay Varghese, citing their guidance as pivotal to his career growth.
From account executive to associate vice president, Dhir’s rise underscores a career defined by strategic thinking, market insight and relentless drive — and positions him at the helm of Omnicom’s next wave of investment strategy.
MAM
Talking heads: TV9’s chief takes the host’s chair with style — but could do with a laugh
Barun Das has swapped the boardroom for the studio and is pulling off a polished interview show — mostly
MUMBAI: There is something quietly audacious about a media chief who decides that running a television empire is not quite enough and plants himself in front of the camera for a good chinwag with the great and the good. Barun Das, chief executive of TV9 Network, has done precisely that, and for the most part, he carries it off with considerable aplomb.
Duologue with Barun Das, now in its fourth season on JioHotstar, is exactly what it says on the tin: two people, two chairs, no frills. In the earlier seasons, Das has sat across from a rather stellar roster, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Aparna Sen, Viswanathan Anand, Kiran Rao, among many other renowned names. And in the fourth instalment he has had guests of the likes of Aamir Khan, Sourav Ganguly, Bianca Balti (Italian super model and cancer survivor), Lothar Matthäus (German football World Cup-winning captain). Throughout, he has coaxed from them nuggets that their publicists would probably rather keep under wraps. Cricket, relationships, spirituality, acting, health, behind-the-scenes machinations that plague politics, intellect, nepotism, nothing is entirely off the table.
Das’s greatest asset is his manner. Unhurried, well-dressed and disarmingly calm, he has the rare gift of making his guests feel so thoroughly at ease that they occasionally forget they are being filmed for television. The questions arrive softly, like a spinner tossing up a googly rather than a fast bowler hurling bouncers, and more often than not, they draw out a telling answer. He has no cue cards or teleprompter to help him along, which is probably a rarity for a host. Some credit must go to the research team operating quietly in the wings, who evidently do their homework so that Das does not have to fumble for his.
Where Duologue stumbles, however, is in its almost determined refusal to lighten up. Each 45-minute episode carries the solemn weight of a budget speech. A dash of wit, a moment of mischief, the odd belly laugh, none of it makes an appearance. Serious conversation has its place, but even the most earnest of interviewers, think David Frost at his best, knew when to let the air out of the room.
Das has built something worth watching. He simply needs to remind himself, and his guests, that a smile never hurt anyone.
Rating: 4.25 out of 5.
Available on JioHotstar.
