Executive Dossier

“I am ‘shameless’ enough to explore every possibility open”

Published

22 years ago

October 20, 2003

For millions of TV viewers in India, Sonu Nigam is a familiar figure, thanks to the success of Sa Re Ga Ma and Kismey Kitna Hai Dam.

This Faridabad-born singer owes his success to his father Agam Kumar, whose enthusiasm for music was passed on to Nigam. Trained under Kumar, Nigam gave his first stage performance at an early age of three. He sang the Mohammed Rafi number Kya Hua Tera Vaada (from the film Hum Kisise Kum Nahin) along with his father. He made his way to Mumbai, the city of dreams , when he was barely 18.

Nigam's first song was recorded for film Aaja Meri Jaa. Soon, the late T-Series head Gulshan Kumar signed Nigam for his music company and he started churning out hits like Achha sila diya tune mere pyaar ka… (film Bewafa Sanam).

Today, this chocolate faced-singer-turned-anchor-turned-actor awaits his first significant film Love in Nepal, slated for an October release. He's acquired a new brawny hip look for the film.

Nigam made some candid confessions to Vickey Lalwani in an interview. Excerpts:

How did 'Love in Nepal' happen?
About a year ago, director Rajat Mukerjee came to me and said he had a script which only I could do justice to. Naturally, I agreed. Within a few days, the remaining cast was decided. Love in Nepal started rolling.

This is your third film. Your earlier movies 'Jaani Dushman' and 'Kaash Aap Hamare Hote' flopped. Worried?
When a movie goes wrong, a lot of factors are responsible for its failure. Unfortunately, in India people don't understand this. The hero and heroine are made the scapegoats.

I wouldn't like to go into details as to why the movies failed. Of course, I know the reasons but people's emotions are involved. I wouldn't like to hurt anyone. Anyway, who hasn't tasted failure? I am not worried.

Being a singer, how satisfied are you with the songs of the film?
The cassettes are selling well enough. However, I would have preferred to be there while the songs were being made. Had that been the case, I am sure the end product would have been better. That's how I – and even Nikhil and Vinay, the music directors of the film – feel.

That's just one regret I have with this movie. Nikhil and Vinay are super music directors – their talent could have been tapped better.

Sonu Nigam and co-star Fllora Saini in a still from 'Love in Nepal'

"I want to act in every existing genre – like romance, action and comedy. My gut feeling is that I will succeed in all"

Why did you move to acting?
Everybody I know – directors, friends and even journalists – used to urge me to try my hand at films. "You'll do well"- I was repeatedly told. Slowly, their opinions started to sink in.

I never took any acting classes. My advantage is that I am a known face and people identify my through television.

Did television anchoring help you in acting?
Anchoring on television made me choreographer- and camera-friendly. Of course, as a child I have acted in films. But when you grow up and face the camera, you need to loosen up a bit. So yes, anchoring was helpful.

Any particular reason for the new look?
Well, I have always kept changing my looks at regular intervals. It's just that people are noticing me more now. When I first came to Mumbai, I had shoulder-length hair. After some days in the city, I sported a crew cut. Then I had longish hair and a thick, coarse beard in Sa Re Ga Ma.

I love to keep changing my look. I don't do it for anyone else – a new makeover just makes me feel good. And hey, girls love the current look! (laughs).

How are you planning your career, here on?
There's so much happening. Television offers, film offers, singing offers… I live the life of an actor, singer, dancer, anchor – all at one time.

But in the long run, I am looking to make my forte in every genre of acting – romance, action, comedy. I have a gut feeling that I will be successful in all the genres.

"Versatility is my strongest point. All my songs are radically different from each other. But I am at ease singing all of them"

How do you shuttle between careers as varied as music, films and anchoring?
Why not? I am a gifted child. My biggest gift is my 'shamelessness', which others don't have.

People are very restricted in what they want to do, they don't try out much in life. I am 'shameless' enough to explore every possibility open. I hated dancing, but still learnt it.

I am sure that many people are jealous of me. They can't stand my multidimensional capabilities. They want to pull me down – which is typically Indian. Some 'great men' (who are conferred with awards almost every year), have even tried to misguide me in the past.

Are you interested in acting in TV serials?
No. I wouldn't do TV serials. There is not enough money in that. But I am open to anchoring new shows on television, subject to its format and the terms and conditions.

Television brought recognition to your singing talent…
(interrupts) I beg to differ. I was a singer first. I bagged Sa Re Ga Ma because I was a singer. I can't lay the credit for the recognition of my singing talent on Sa Re Ga Ma. I got singing assignments for films because of my pop albums.

Let me put it differently. Television gave you the platform to come into limelight. Agree?
Yes, agree. That's precisely why I didn't listen to those who discouraged me from doing this medium. I trust my own judgment. I knew the impact of television. I knew the reach of television. Almost 70 per cent of my success today is due to television.

You have worked on Star Plus as well as Zee. What is the difference between these channels?
(smiles). My experience with both channels was great. Both have their pros and cons, but it would be unfair to compare.

As a singer, what is your strongest point?
Versatility. All my songs – be it What is your mobile number?.., Zindagi maut na ban jaaye sambhaalo yaaro…, Bijuriya… or Ye phoolo ki dukaan per gori ka makaan… – are radically different from each other. But I am at ease singing all of them.

In your early days, did you have to approach people for work or did they come to you?
For the first five years, I was a beggar. Everybody begs in their initial days. No newcomer can walk into an office and say, "Sir, I am very good at my job. If you want me, you can hire me."

However, at present, I'm working very hard. Singing, dancing, body building, acting – all this requires regular inputs. I want to grow further in the industry.

Executive Dossier

Game on, fame on as Good Game hunts India’s first global gaming star

Published

1 month ago

January 27, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: Game faces on, pressure high India’s gaming ambitions are levelling up. Good Game, billed as the world’s first as-live global gaming reality show, has officially launched in India with a bold mission: to crown the country’s first Global Gaming Superstar.

Blending esports with mainstream entertainment, the show brings together competitive gaming, creativity and on-camera performance in a format that tests more than just joystick skills. Contestants will be judged on gameplay, screen presence and their ability to perform under pressure, reflecting how gaming has evolved from pastime to profession and pop culture currency.

Fronting the show are three high-profile ambassadors: actor and entrepreneur Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Indian cricket star Rishabh Pant, and gaming creator Ujjwal Chaurasia. The winner will take home Rs 1 crore ($100,000) among the largest prize pools for any Indian reality show along with the chance to represent India on a global stage.

Backed by a planned annual investment of up to Rs 100 crore, Good Game is also courting brand partners, promising a minimum reach of 500 million among India’s core youth audience. The creators position the show as a bridge between entertainment and interactive culture, offering long-format content, community engagement and commercial scale.

Auditions are now open to Indian citizens aged 18 and above, inviting amateur and professional gamers, creators and performers alike. Shortlisted candidates will be called for in-person auditions in Mumbai on 14 and 15 February, and in Delhi on 28 February and 1 March 2026.

With big money, big names and even bigger ambition, Good Game signals a shift in how India views gaming not just as play, but as performance, profession and prime-time spectacle.

Digital

SpotDraft hires new CMO and CFO to fuel global push for its AI contract platform

Published

3 months ago

December 3, 2025

indiantelevision.com Team

INDIA: SpotDraft has strengthened its senior ranks as it gears up for faster global expansion, naming Alon Waks as chief marketing officer and Amit Sharma as chief financial officer. The appointments follow the firm’s $54 million Series B round earlier this year and mark a push to scale across the Americas, EMEA and India.

The AI-powered contract-lifecycle-management platform has posted 100 per cent year-on-year growth in customer acquisition, counting Apollo.io, IPSY, Mixpanel, Oyster and Panasonic among its global clients. The firm processes more than one million contracts annually, with volumes up 173 per cent and nearly 50,000 monthly active users.

Waks, a veteran of Kustomer, Bizzabo, CreatorIQ, LivePerson and ZoomInfo, will steer global marketing and category positioning as legal teams adopt AI-driven tools. Sharma, who has led finance across scaling tech firms since 2016, will guide financial strategy, investor relations and market expansion.

Both hires aim to sharpen SpotDraft’s bid for a larger slice of the fast-growing legal-tech market, expected to exceed $63 billion by 2032. Co-founder and chief executive Shashank Bijapur said the company is focused on scaling go-to-market operations in the Americas, deepening leadership in EMEA, and accelerating AI capabilities for general counsels and legal-operations leaders.

Clients report shorter deal cycles and better alignment between legal and business teams. “What used to take weeks now happens in days,” said Abnormal Security senior legal operations manager Susan Koenig. DeepL head of legal operations André Barrow, said SpotDraft has helped reframe legal “from a cost centre to a generator of revenue”.

Executive Dossier

Outdoor Ads Get Smarter as LOC8 Shifts OOH from Visibility to Attention

Published

3 months ago

November 28, 2025

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: Out-of-home ads were once the wallflowers of marketing seen by everyone, noticed by few. But in an age where attention has become the world’s most fought-over currency, even billboards are getting a brain upgrade. Enter LOC8, OSMO’s AI-powered attention engine, quietly reshaping the old OOH playbook by measuring not just who could have looked at an ad, but who actually did. The shift is subtle but seismic: impressions are out, impact is in and data, not gut instinct, is calling the shots.

In a landscape where marketers question every rupee spent outdoors, LOC8 is turning lampposts, flyovers and traffic islands into precision-mapped attention laboratories. By crunching dwell time, visibility zones, perceptual size and real-world obstructions, the platform is dragging OOH into a future where creativity meets computer vision and where the best ideas aren’t just eye-catching, but eye-measured. From automotive facelifts to FMCG novelty and real estate trust-building, the message is clear, outdoor has stopped shouting and started listening. Indian Television Dot Com explores more about it in an Interview interview with OSMO co-founder Nipun Arora.

On how OSMO is shifting outdoor advertising from a visibility-led medium to an attention-led one through LOC8.

Traditional OOH has long been measured by visibility and impressions i.e how many people could see an ad. OSMO, through its proprietary AI platform LOC8, is shifting that narrative more towards likelihood of being noticed. Using computer vision and machine learning, LOC8 analyzes real-world video data to measure visibility zones, obstructions, dwell time and perceptual size; bringing precision to how attention is quantified outdoors. It moves the focus from mere impressions to quality of impressions, making OOH a data-verified, attention-led medium comparable to digital in accountability.

On how marketers can use LOC8’s dwell-time, visibility and perception insights to craft more effective, emotionally resonant OOH campaigns.

LOC8 helps brands understand how people truly experience outdoor media how long they look, from what distance, and under what conditions. By quantifying dwell time, visibility duration, and perceptual size; marketers can plan campaigns that align with real human viewing behavior. This empowers creative and strategy teams to design emotionally resonant storytelling where messaging, visual hierarchy and placement are optimized for how people actually notice and process OOH creatives.

About what LOC8 has revealed through campaigns like Renault Triber and Namaste India on how categories such as auto, FMCG and real estate use attention metrics to drive outcomes.

Each category uses attention data differently but all share one common goal: to convert outdoor visibility into measurable engagement.

• Automotive | Renault Triber

For the new Renault Triber facelift, bold creative met data-led planning through LOC8. By analyzing on-ground video data, LOC8 measured real audience attention across placements factoring in visibility zones, obstructions, traffic speed and perceptual size. This enabled Renault to identify corridors that delivered maximum reach, saliency and engagement, optimizing media efficiency and ROI.

• FMCG | Namaste India

In OOH, innovation is the hook and assets are the bait. But bait often hides the hook. With Loc8’s attention metrics, we ensured the bait wasn’t a hurdle, rather it became the perfect stage for innovation to deliver its full impact! The insight proved that creative novelty, when validated by attention data, drives deeper engagement and measurable brand lift.

• Real Estate

For luxury and real estate campaigns targeting HNI/UHNI audiences, attention patterns differ especially between front and rear passengers, who are often the core audience segment for premium sites. LOC8’s ability to distinguish rear vs. front visibility plays a critical role here. It helps identify sites that offer longer viewing windows and stronger perceptual dominance from the rear seat where decision-makers are most likely seated making it a key differentiator for premium and trust-led categories. Together, these insights prove that auto optimizes for impact, FMCG for recall, and real estate for trust visibility showing how attention metrics adapt to category goals while ensuring measurable outcomes.

On how attention analytics will shape the future of brand storytelling and media planning as OOH becomes more digitised and data-driven.

As outdoor digitizes, attention analytics will inform not just where to advertise but how stories are told in public spaces. This evolution transforms OOH from a static broadcast channel into a dynamic attention ecosystem, where creativity is optimized through evidence-based insight.

On how LOC8’s data-led framework helps marketers quantify OOH impact and make outdoor a more accountable, ROI-driven medium.

LOC8 bridges the gap between intuition and evidence. By quantifying metrics like visibility duration, attention opportunity index, and visual saliency rank, it allows brands to benchmark site performance and justify investment. This data-led approach brings transparency, comparability and ROI measurement to a medium historically driven by perception.

On how OSMO ensures AI and computer vision enhance creativity rather than reduce it to numbers.

OSMO believes that technology should enhance creativity, not overshadow it. LOC8’s attention models reveal what naturally draws the human eye helping creative teams refine design cues, contrast, and visual hierarchy for greater impact. By merging art and science, LOC8 empowers creativity with intelligence.

About the creative best practices and design cues LOC8 has uncovered regarding what truly captures consumer attention outdoors.

LOC8’s visual cognition analysis has surfaced clear patterns across campaigns:

• High contrast and minimal messaging outperform cluttered designs.

• Motion cues draw significantly longer dwell times.

• The first two seconds are critical, creatives must establish focus instantly.

• Contextual alignment between the creative and its environment increases attention by over 30%.

These learnings offer a scientific foundation for creative effectiveness helping brands design OOH that’s visually magnetic and emotionally memorable.

On how attention metrics will integrate into omnichannel planning where OOH, digital and social work together for unified brand impact.

Attention can become the unifying KPI across OOH, digital and social to creates seamless storytelling continuity, where outdoor triggers digital engagement. The future of omnichannel planning lies in attention-led integration ensuring that campaigns don’t just reach audiences everywhere but truly capture and hold their focus.