Film Production
Dharma Productions acquires Cornerstone stake, relaunches talent agency as DCAA
MUMBAI: Dharma Productions is tightening its grip on India’s talent economy. The film studio has bought out Cornerstone’s stake in Dharma Cornerstone Agency and relaunched the venture as Dharma Collab Artists Agency (DCAA), positioning it as its exclusive platform for artist representation across film, music, sport, digital media and live experiences.
The move brings the agency fully in-house and signals a broader cultural play by Dharma, jointly owned by Karan Johar and Adar Poonawalla. DCAA will be led by Uday Singh Gauri as chief executive, with Rajeev Masand continuing as chief operating officer, providing continuity as the business scales up.
DCAA’s mandate goes well beyond film stars. The agency will focus on building multi-format careers, cross-platform deals and long-term cultural relevance for talent operating across entertainment and influence-led industries. It is a bet on convergence: cinema colliding with music, sport, creators and live culture.
Chief executive of Dharma Productions, Apoorva Mehta, said talent had always been central to the studio’s identity. DCAA, he added, was a “structured, long-term platform” designed to deepen Dharma’s role in India’s creative economy.
For Gauri, who has spent two decades working across talent management, music and live entertainment, the relaunch is about redefining representation itself.
Today’s artists, he said, need cultural intelligence, business instinct and strategic navigation, not just deals and visibility.
The agency’s roster reflects that ambition. It includes film actors such as Janhvi Kapoor, Ananya Panday, Sara Ali Khan, Disha Patani, Aditya Roy Kapur, Harshvardhan Rane, Lakshya and Rohit Saraf; musicians Neeti Mohan and Jonita Gandhi; and digital and cultural voices including Orry, Sumukhi Suresh, Anahita Shroff, Kareema Barry and Erika Packard.
With DCAA, Dharma is no longer just making films. It is building an ecosystem—owning the talent pipeline, the platforms and the cultural conversation. In an industry where attention is currency, Dharma has decided not just to cast the stars, but to manage the constellations.
Film Production
Priyanka Kaur Dhillon joins SVF Entertainment as lead for music distribution
A seasoned content dealmaker with 16 years in digital and satellite media joins the Bengali entertainment powerhouse as it pushes into the pan-India music market
Mumbai: Priyanka Kaur Dhillon has made her move. The content acquisitions and commercials veteran, most recently commercial manager at Sony Pictures Networks India, has joined SVF Entertainment as lead for music distribution, stepping into one of the more interesting briefs in regional entertainment right now.
SVF is no ordinary regional label. Over 30 years it has built a formidable legacy in Bengali cinema and music, driven by culturally resonant storytelling and a catalogue that consistently punches above its weight. Its recent success with Chiraiya underlines the point. But the Kolkata-based powerhouse now has its sights firmly set beyond Bengal, most visibly through Legacy, a rap reality series produced in collaboration with hip-hop label Kalamkaar that signals a deliberate push into the pan-India music ecosystem.
Dhillon brings precisely the kind of muscle SVF needs for that expansion. At Sony Pictures Networks India, she led film acquisition and commercials and handled music licensing across the entire satellite network. Before that, she spent nearly 15 years at Hungama, rising to assistant general manager and leading strategic content licensing for the platform’s digital entertainment business, with a particular focus on international markets. Her label relationships span the full roster: Sony Music, Universal Music, Warner Music, Believe International, Tunecore, The Orchard and a clutch of smaller aggregators. She has negotiated and closed deals with Hollywood studios, Bollywood production houses and regional content players alike, building pricing models and deal structures off data analysis rather than instinct.
Announcing the appointment, Dhillon said she was “thrilled to begin this journey with an iconic Bengali music label and content powerhouse,” adding that SVF’s “constant drive to push boundaries” was what drew her to the role.
SVF has spent three decades proving that regional does not mean limited. With a sharp commercial operator now steering its music distribution, its bid to go national just got a good deal more serious.
