GECs
Marinating Films’ Desi Explorers now set to explore Taiwan
MUMBAI: After exploring the cities and places of import in Jordan, Marinating Films Pvt Ltd has now stepped into Taiwan for the second part of its concept of web based tourism. The production house began its journey of the island nation on 11 June. Sarah Khan, Surbhi Jyoti and Jai Soni will be the new explorers of the Taiwan edition along with Sukirti Kandpal, Vrushika Mehta and Kishwar Merchant from the Jordan series.
The Taiwan sojourn will be a 10 episodic series and will go live inline from mid-July on in-house YouTube channel. The Hindi travel show will focus on how a country can have different facets for different characters.
The makers of Desi Explorers say that their team will be exploring Taiwan from north to south for 12 days. Some of the iconic sites that will be covered include Sun Moon Lake, Taroko National Park, Hualien and Taitung among others.
Marinating Films producer Sunny Arora says, “Desi Explorers will give an insight about the countries that our team will travel and the celebrities they travel with. The viewers will get to explore a very different side of their favourite celebrities”
The production house asserts that the Taiwan edition will be a journey that will stand out in the content flow of the digital world. It also has plans to take Desi Explorers to many other countries.
Marinating Films has tied up with the Taiwan Tourism Board. On the promotion front, as in the Jordan season, the team is being accompanied by India TV and ABP News this season also. The making will be featured on popular shows Saas Bahu aur Saazish and Saas Bahu Suspense. Apart from news channels, the series will be pushed on celebrity social media platforms and the digital space. There is also an e-travelogue planned after the season which will be available to read online.
Also, as in the Jordan series, the Taiwan series will also be shot with Canon 5D Mark III cameras’. The series is being directed by Prakash Kunjal and produced by Sunny Arora. The makers claim that this series has already cost close to Rs 1 crore.
Marinating Films is rolling out trailers of the Jordan journey, while the episodes will go online every Friday.
GECs
ZEEL overhauls sales structure to chase growth across TV and digital platforms
New structure sharpens digital push as viewing habits fragment fast
MUMBAI: Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. is reshuffling its sales playbook as it looks to keep pace with a fast-changing media landscape, where audiences are scattered, screens are multiplying and advertisers are following the data.
According to media reports, the rejig is anchored in the company’s push to build a more integrated, data-led monetisation engine, one that can straddle both traditional television and fast-growing digital platforms with equal ease.
At the heart of the move is a reworked sales architecture designed to deliver cross-platform solutions. With connected TV gaining ground and digital consumption surging, ZEEL is aligning its teams to move quicker, think broader and sell smarter.
The restructuring is being led by chief operating officer, advertisement revenue, Sandeep Mehrotra, at a time when the company says it is seeing tremendous growth. The idea is simple: match the right talent to the right opportunity in a market that is anything but static.
As part of the overhaul, several long-serving executives have been elevated to chief sales officer roles across regions and content clusters. Sanjoy Chatterjee will head the east market, while Gunjarav Nayak takes charge of the west along with high-margin verticals such as hmg, brand works, intellectual properties and digital sales. Rajnish Gupta will oversee bengaluru and chennai markets alongside the kannada and tamil clusters.
In other key moves, Divjyot Dhanda will lead hyderabad and kochi markets and manage zee tv, zee keralam and the telugu cluster. Roshan Vasu Kotian will supervise a diverse portfolio including Zee Marathi, &tv, Zee Punjabi, Zee Anmol, Big Magic and Zee Biskope.
The company is also strengthening its bench, appointing national sales heads across retail, regional clusters, digital and brand solutions. Ankur Kapila’s appointment to lead digital sales signals a sharper push into a segment that continues to outpace traditional formats.
Behind the scenes, dedicated strategy and operations roles have been carved out for both linear and digital businesses. Nitin Shetty, Rajkiran Shrivastav and Priya Nambiar will take on key responsibilities to ensure the new structure runs with precision.
The broader aim is clear. ZEEL wants a bigger slice of advertising budgets that are steadily drifting towards digital and connected TV ecosystems. By integrating its offerings, the company hopes to deepen client relationships while unlocking new revenue streams.
The new structure takes effect immediately, with Mehrotra continuing to report to chief executive officer Punit Goenka and steer the company’s advertising revenue strategy. Senior executive Laxmi Shetty will support the transition, with her revised role expected to be announced soon.
In a market where content is everywhere but attention is scarce, ZEEL’s latest move is less about rearranging the org chart and more about staying in the game.
