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Weekend Unwind with: Nu Republic’s Ujjwal Sarin
Mumbai: With the first weekend of January 2024 upon us, it is time to unwind with the latest Q&A edition of Indiantelevision.com’s Weekend Unwind—a series of informal chats that peek into the minds of business executives through a fun lens in an attempt to get to know the person behind the title a little better.
In this week’s session, we have Nu Republic’s founder Ujjwal Sarin.
Sarin is a distinguished business leader with a career spanning over 17 years, in managing diverse customer-facing businesses in India. His expertise lies in the strategic management of customer-centric enterprises, product development, global sourcing, sales, branding, and advertising.
In 2018, Ujjwal founded Nu Republic, an innovative Indian lifestyle brand merging music, fashion, and technology. Renowned for its advanced wireless audio devices like earbuds and speakers, Nu Republic targets forward-thinkers who value both function and style. Under Ujjwal’s leadership, the brand elevates “wear-tech” beyond mere gadgets, gaining global recognition and becoming a favorite among trendsetting individuals.
So, without further ado, here it goes…
Your mantra for life
Art of simplicity is a puzzle of complexity, a quote by Douglas Horton. It actually takes a huge amount of deep thinking, thoughtful process and curation of ideas to make something which looks so simple for the eyes. And so is with life. Keeping things simple is not that simple. It takes lots of complex reflection on a daily basis to simplify life in the long run. And maybe therein lies its beauty.
A book you are currently reading or plan to read
Is this anything – Jerry Sienfeld
Your fitness mantra, especially during the pandemic
I believe a fit body leads to a fit mind. Walking / Running with my favorite tracks blaring on my Nu Republic® earbuds is my go to fitness mantra.
Your comfort food
Irrespective of the state of my hunger, or time of the day, a cheeseburger gets me going.
A quote or philosophy that keeps you going when the chips are down
I keep myself in the present as much as possible through this simple quote by Epictetus “We suffer more in imagination than in reality”. Overthinking, anxiety and unnecessary worries are the result of exaggerated imaginations. We often want to predict what the consequences of our actions will be. We can sometimes overthink possibilities within our future and devise scenarios in the hope they will allow us to cope with whatever life will throw at us.
We lose track of the present, and we embellish the future with our fears and insecurities. Oftentimes, our greatest inner turmoil is not an ailment of actuality, but an unconscious manifestation of our perceived shortcomings.
Your guilty pleasure
Ice cream
The last time you tried something new
Doing the “Nu” is part of my life. By choosing a life of an entrepreneur, I have signed up to a life of adventure. I am living by the philosophy immortalized by Pink Floyd “all you touch and all you see all your life will ever be”.
A life lesson you learned the hard way
Shortcut to success is a long road to nowhere.
For example, there are classic examples of businesses going down completely because of a shortcut they used to cash in on success. I want to ensure that I choose a path of fulfillment when I visualise success. Overnight success fizzles out in a day. Hard-earned success leaves behind a legacy.
What gets you excited about life?
Travel and Music
What’s on top of your bucket list?
Making Nu Republic the coolest brand ever is my goal and at the top of my bucket list.
If you could give one piece of advice to your younger self, what would it be?
Direction is more important than speed. Some people are going fast nowhere.
There is a difference between being simply busy and busy in the right direction. Without a sense of direction, you may be constantly busy but ultimately achieve very little. On the other hand, if you prioritize direction over speed, understand that taking the time to plan and set goals can lead to more meaningful and fulfilling outcomes in the long run.
One thing you would most like to change about the world
I want to create products in Nu Republic which change the way consumers look at this category. Taking products from mere fashion serving devices to powerful modes of fashion and self expression is my ultimate goal and this change can be felt already.
An activity that keeps you motivated and charged during tough times
Music is my go to solution to every problem. It has the power to transport me to a different world, where I can find solace and escape from reality. Whether I’m feeling sad, stressed, or overwhelmed, music has a way of soothing my soul and bringing me inner peace.
What lifts your spirits when life gets you down?
As music has the ability to evoke a wide range of emotions. Different genres and melodies can make people feel happy, sad, excited, or relaxed. It often serves as a powerful tool for expressing and processing emotions.
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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.
