Digital
Weekend Unwind with: Vavo Digital founder & CEO Neha Puri
Mumbai: With another weekend 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 Vavo Digital founder & CEO Neha Puri.
A multi-start-up founder and visionary, Puri has a legacy of developing solutions to problems that are a result of distress and unforeseen situations. Her journey before establishing the dynamic influencer marketing space – Vavo Digital, was that of an individual full of visionary zeal and talent. She started her entrepreneurial journey at the age of 24 with her food delivery platform, Cyber Chef, which was later sold off, after two years of operations.
In a quest to explore the world of marketing and operations, Puri then worked with Movenpick Ice Cream India as the head of franchise and business development. She played an instrumental role in opening eight Movenpick stores across India in six months. She has never stopped experimenting and infusing her ideas into reality, which was the reason that she formed another new venture—a gourmet gifting business for tier I and tier II cities. This started as a need of the market, for people with high disposable incomes but not many options available in the market.
Post this, when in 2020 the pandemic hit the globe and everything moved drastically digital, Puri took it as an opportunity and started the digital influencer-marketing hub, Vavo Digital.
Talking about her educational background, she is an international baccalaureate from Ecole Mondiale World School and has completed her bachelor’s in business administration (BBA) from Lancaster University (in affiliation with GD Goenka). She also holds a master’s degree in MSc marketing and strategy from Warwick Business School.
It is her vision to develop Vavo Digital as a 360-degree influencer marketing agency – covering major platforms, regional platforms, meme marketing, designing, developing AR filters, and all the other aspects that can be amplified with the help of influencers.
Owing to her growing interest in the digital space, Puri spends a lot of her idle time on social media, including LinkedIn and Instagram, exploring the space for better understanding and analysis. Through LinkedIn, she has built several strong connections with relevant business professionals. Puri has also organically grown her profile on LinkedIn and has over 95k followers.
She also likes to listen to music and watch documentaries on the OTT platform. Apart from these hobbies, cooking remains her favourite and she takes it as a fruitful disconnection from work. Puri is all set to explore the space of social media and envisions working forever on the possibilities of making the marketing space more dynamic and at par with the current technological developments.
So, without further ado, here it goes…
Your mantra for life
Eat the frog first thing in the morning. There is a quote by Mark Twain: “Where the frog represents items on my to-do list that I dread working on, and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.”
A book you are currently reading/plan to read
“Atomic Habits” by James Clear: Your habits play a massive role in your success. This book will help you build good habits and break bad ones.
Your fitness mantra, especially during the pandemic
Walking/jogging are my go-to fitness routines. I remember meeting a 90-year-old man at a park once who told me he began jogging at the age of 60 because he realised he wasn’t doing much justice to himself and that walking/jogging was one activity that made him feel fresh and did not require any form of dependency. It really inspired me.
Your comfort food
Soya sticks with hummus! (a must try).
When the chips are down, a quote/philosophy that keeps you going
A lot of people might be going through things worse than what you feel at that moment, so thank God for things that could have been worse and work towards fixing them rather than being angry or frustrated for being in that situation.
Your guilty pleasure
Binge watching Turkish dramas.
A life lesson you learnt the hard way
You are in control of your own heaven or hell.
What gets you excited about life?
The endless possibilities of travel and exploring the world.
What’s on top of your bucket list?
Skydiving
If you could give one piece of advice to your younger self, what would it be?
You can never know it all. When people speak, it is best to listen to them because they talk about their experiences. Do what you want, but calmly listen to what others have to say.
One thing you would most like to change about the world
A lack of empathy.
An activity that keeps you motivated/charged during tough times
My colleagues always say, “We are in this together; you don’t have to deal with problems alone.”
What lifts your spirits when life gets you down?
Sitting with my best friend/business partner, it is just the sheer comfort of having someone you can get through things with.
Your go-to stress buster
Lying next to my pet.
Digital
Content India 2026 opens with a copro pitch, a spice evangelist and a £10,000 prize for Indian storytelling
Dish TV and C21Media’s three-day summit puts seven ambitious projects before an international jury, and two walk away with serious development money
MUMBAI: India’s content industry gathered in Mumbai this March for Content India 2026, a three-day summit organised by Dish TV in partnership with C21Media, and it wasted no time making a statement. The event opened with a Copro Pitch that put seven scripted and unscripted television concepts before an international panel of judges, and by the end of it, two projects had walked away with £10,000 each in marketing prize money from C21Media to support development and international promotion.
The jury, comprising Frank Spotnitz, Fiona Campbell, Rashmi Bajpai, Bal Samra and Rachel Glaister, evaluated a shortlist that ranged from a dark Mumbai comedy-drama about mental health (Dirty Minds, created by Sundar Aaron) to a Delhi coming-of-age mystery (Djinn Patrol, by Neha Sharma and Kilian Irwin), a techno-thriller about a teenage gaming prodigy (Kanpur X Satori, by Suchita Bhatia), an investigative crime drama blending mythology and modern thriller (The Age of Kali, by Shivani Bhatija), a documentary on India’s spice heritage (The Masala Quest, hosted by Sarina Kamini), a documentary on competitive gaming (Respawn: India’s Esports Revolution, by George Mangala Thomas and Sangram Mawari), and a reality-horror competition merging gaming and immersive fear (Scary Goose, by Samar Iqbal).
The session was hosted by Mayank Shekhar.
The two winners were Djinn Patrol, backed by Miura Kite, formerly of Participant Media and known for Chinatown and Keep Sweet: Pray & Obey, with Jaya Entertainment, producers of Real Kashmir Football Club, also attached; and The Masala Quest, created and hosted by Sarina Kamini, an Indian-Australian cook, author and self-described “spice evangelist.”
The summit also unveiled the Content India Trends Report, whose findings made for bracing reading. Daoud Jackson, senior analyst at OMDIA, set the tone: “By 2030, online video in India will nearly double the revenue of traditional TV, becoming the main driver of growth.” He noted that in 2025, India produced a quarter of all YouTube videos globally, overtaking the United States, while Indians collectively spend 117 years daily on YouTube and 72 years on Instagram. Traditional subscription TV is declining as free TV and connected TV gain ground, forcing broadcasters to innovate. “AI-generated content is just 2 per cent of engagement,” Jackson added, “highlighting the dominance of high-quality human content. The key for Indian media companies is scaling while monetising effectively from day one.”
Hannah Walsh, principal analyst at Ampere Analysis, added hard numbers to the picture. India produced over 24,000 titles in January 2026 alone, with 19,000 available internationally. The country now accounts for 12 per cent of Asia-Pacific content spend, up from 8 per cent in 2021, outpacing both Japan and China. Key exporters include JioStar, Zee Entertainment, Sony India, Amazon and Netflix, delivering over 7,500 Indian-produced titles abroad each year. The top importing markets are Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, the United States and the Philippines. Scripted content dominates globally at 88 per cent, with crime dramas and children’s and family titles performing particularly strongly.
Manoj Dobhal, chief executive and executive director of Dish TV India, framed the summit’s ambition squarely. “Stories don’t need translation. They need a platform, discovery, and reach, local or global,” he said. “India produces more movies than any country, our streaming platforms compete globally, and our tech and creators win international awards. Yet fragmentation slows growth. Producers, platforms, and tech move in different lanes. We need shared spaces, collaboration, and an ecosystem where ideas, technology, and people meet. That is why we built Content India.”
The data, the pitches and the prize money all pointed to the same conclusion: India is not waiting for the world to discover its stories. It is building the infrastructure to sell them.
