MAM
Weekend Unwind with: Supertails co-founder Varun Sadana
Mumbai: Saturday’s here, bringing with it the time to unwind yet again with our special series, “Weekend Unwind.” Here we take a peek into the minds of corporate heads through a fun lens in an attempt to get to know the person behind the title a little better. In this week’s edition, we have Supertails co-founder Varun Sadana. Supertails is a one-of-its-kind platform that supports the ever-increasing pet parent community with veterinary care and a one-stop solution for pet food and supplies.
An MBA from IIM Lucknow, Varun comes with rich experience of building and leading teams across strategy, procurement, production, and sales. His previous stint was as the co-founder and COO of the fresh meat brand, Licious. Armed with a decade-long stint in the FMCG and retail spaces, having worked with brands such as Hindustan Unilever, Snapdeal, and IBM, to name a few, Varun aims to reimagine pet care in India with Supertails. Along with the team, he aims to bridge the accessibility gap in pet healthcare and create an ecosystem of products and services that make pet parenting smooth and enriching.
So, without further ado here goes…
A book you are currently reading/plan to read
“Thinking Fast And Slow by Daniel Kanheman”, reading it for the second time.
Your fitness mantra, especially during the pandemic
45 minutes workout, seven days a week with no cheat day.
Your comfort food
Eggs – sunny side up (add mashed potatoes for extra gluttony).
When the chips are down a quote/philosophy that keeps you going
Bad times are important to help you understand how good times feel like, embrace them!
Your guilty pleasure
Watching cookery videos on YouTube.
When was the last time you tried something new?
I recently learned how to code in python.
A life lesson you learnt the hard way
Everyone has a different way to respond to things, and it’s important to learn to appreciate the other point of view.
What gets you excited about life?
Everything – the fact that one is alive is enough to be excited about.
What’s on top of your bucket list?
Chase the northern lights, knowing well that I hate the cold!
If you could give one piece of advice to your younger self, what would it be?
Do more. There is always time, you just have to find it.
One thing you would most like to change about the world
We can live with so much lesser polarisation of our views, without hurting our right to speech.
An activity that keeps you motivated/charged during tough times
Talk to a lot of people to get ideas and help, it works. Advices are always easier to give, and almost always free.
What lifts your spirits when life gets you down?
Tomorrow is a new day, focus on getting a good night’s sleep.
Your go-to stress buster
Cooking while listening to stairway to heaven.
Your mantra for life
Ambition should always be greater than resources.
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.
