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Tag: Abhishek Maheshwari

  • Nitin Dadoo quits Disney India, Ankush Shetty takes charge

    Nitin Dadoo quits Disney India, Ankush Shetty takes charge

    MUMBAI: TV distribution professional Nitin Dadoo is moving on from Disney India. According to sources, Dadoo, who is the executive director & head-distribution at the India subsidiary of the mouse house, is serving his notice period.

    Disney India kids channels ad sales director Ankush Shetty has been elevated and will take charge of the distribution business.

    Dadoo was not available for comment, neither was Shetty, despite repeated attempts to reach out to them by indiantelevision.com.

    Dadoo has been associated for 11 years now with Disney. He joined the network in August 2006 as Disney consumer products head finance. Prior to that, he was working with Dutch MNC Dumex India as a manager corporate planning and MIS.

    Shetty joined Disney as director ad sales kids channels, media networks in June 2014. Before this appointment, he was working with Turner International as national sales director, Pogo for more than two years. Shetty was associated with Turner for more than 10 years. He joined Turner as associate account manager in January 2005. He has also worked with National Geographic channel India, Mid Day and Parekh Marine agency.

  • Walt Disney elevates Abhishek Maheshwari as country head

    Walt Disney elevates Abhishek Maheshwari as country head

    MUMBAI: The Walt Disney Company has announced the appointment of Abhishek Maheshwari as country head for India. 

    Maheshwari, who joined Disney in 2012, will now be responsible for all of Disney’s businesses reporting to Walt Disney International executive vice president and managing director South AsiaMahesh Samat.

    “Disney brands continue to grow across platforms and consumer segments in India,” said Samat. “Abhishek is an astute and transformative business leader. Since joining the company, he has championed and driven strategic changes that have positioned our businesses to achieve consistent significant growth.” 

    Maheshwari has held several leadership roles in corporate strategy and business development, consumer products and interactive and, most recently, as the head of Integrated Media Networks. 

    Prior to working for The Walt Disney Company, Maheshwari worked for Kubera Partners, and McKinsey & Co. at its US and India offices.

    “It is a privilege to lead Disney India and I am greatly encouraged by the talent, passion and commitment of our teams across the organisation. Together, our team will focus on bringing the best of Disney, Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars and our home grown brands of Hungama, Bindass and UTV to Indian audiences and provide great consumer experiences across all our businesses,” said Maheshwari.

    The company’s Indian business was recently consolidated under a South Asian hub integrating Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam under the leadership of Mahesh Samat.

  • Disney to launch English GEC HD on 29 Oct

    Disney to launch English GEC HD on 29 Oct

    MUMBAI: English GEC Disney International HD will be launched on 29 October. “It will have exclusive content which has not been shown on any traditional or digital platform before — it’s cent per cent original content,” said Disney India vice-president – media networks and interactive Abhishek Maheshwari.

    The new channel — catering to the entertainment needs of 14-25-year-olds — will be supported by a library of 1500-plus episodes of live action series and 100-plus Disney movies. The channel, with 6-8 pm prime-time band, will not have any animated shows.

    With increase in the number of players in the English entertainment genre, the competition is also intense. Recently, Zee launched &Prive, targeting the non-conformists.

    Disney India will now have eight channels in its portfolio, including the latest addition Disney International HD (from 29 October).

    Maheshwari pointed out: “Typically, we have seen that kids grow out of animation after 14 years, and we would offer a kind of content that would resonate with them and stay there for a long time.”

    The channel’s promotional and marketing campaign will start in full swing after Diwali in six metros and tier 1 cities. “A lot of tractional will come from these two geographies,” Maheshwari added.

    About distribution, he said: “Our premier content will be available on all DTH platforms and we are closely following up with the cable networks as well. The increase in HD consumption and HD households, both are the reasons behind the HD strategy,” he added.

    The content mix of the new channel spans a wide variety of new series and movies, ranging from the latest hits like ‘Liv and Maddie’, ‘KC Undercover’ and ‘Girl Meets World’, to blockbuster original movies such as ‘Descendants’ and ‘Teen Beach Movie, and popular hits like ‘Hannah Montana’ and ‘Wizards of Waverley Palace’ and ‘High School Musical’.  

    The content will also highlight Disney’s original music from these series and movies through music videos and sing-along versions.

    It remains to be seen how convincing the new content in a superior HD format is to the grown-up teens and young adults.

  • Disney pushes brand bindass as it merges with bindass Play, enters OTT space

    Disney pushes brand bindass as it merges with bindass Play, enters OTT space

    MUMBAI: It’s hardly a week since Disney India rebranded its movie channel UTV Movies, and now the network has consolidated its two channels — that is bindass and bindass Play. Along with that, in its promise to be omni-present across platforms, bindass will launch an OTT platform for the millennials who want to consume content on-the-go.

    The brand bindass will undergo a transformation this month-end, and after the consolidation with bindass, what will happen to bindass Play is anybody’s guess.

    With the addition of OTT, bindass will have complete presence across linear and digital platforms, providing the users with more opportunities to interact with the brand. Also, the bindass channel will represent a variety of content in a refreshing new packaging.

    Disney media networks and interactive vice president Abhishek Maheshwari said, “The first big initiative we are taking is that we are launching a bindass app in the next few weeks. The idea is to interact with our consumer directly and they can view all our content on one place and to create an engaging platform. We will start with the content we have and, going forward, we will start building content on the basis of consumer preference — this is the key initiative we are doing with bindass.”

    About the ad rate, Disney India says it believes in going with story and finding out the best deal to integrate the brand in the content.

    The network is bringing together branded content, original shows, contemporary music and movies on a single platform – bindass. “The second is that — we are re-packaging bindass. As we look at the evolution of the brand, bindass was launched a decade ago, and the brand stood for entertainment for the millennials, the core remains the same but how stories are told is evolving, and now when we will have a digital presence not on just one platform but on multi-platform along with the linear presence while coming up with the bindass’ new look.”

    bindass Play was launched in 2014, when Siddharth Roy-Kapoor was heading Disney India. bindass Play replaced UTV Stars as the network wanted to build on a youth-centric brand.

    The channel was launched with 13 shows like Tia’s request, Tweet Meri Beat, Ishq Messenger and among others, allowing viewers to choose his/her playlist from social media.

    The rebranded channel will have more music and movies, 13 hours of Hindi music spread across the day, every day, starting with five hours of uninterrupted hit in the morning including viewers’ favorite Selfie Wala request show and two-hour block of Tia’s Request show injects a ton load of energy in the evening.

    Four hours of great stories are to be enjoyed through the day including everyone’s favorite Yeh Hai Aashiqui and the latest show in the bindass stable – Dil Buffering, which launches on 29 September. The weekends have a little extra with a movie every afternoon on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

    “For Dil Buffering, we have a fairly aggressive marketing campaign around that. We will be pushing the brand bindass, not the channel bindass,” Maheshwari added.

    Maheshwari informed: “In music, we see lots of engagement from the audience, therefore we will go with 13 hours’ music. We have also done social media integration, and we will continue to do more. Also, we have seen a decent amount of interest in movies. We will have movies in the slot called Filmwaag. The idea is to air movies that appeal to the youth.”

    Last year, with Girl in the City (followed by The Trip and Girl In The City Chapter 2), bindass led the wave of disruption with an omni-content, multi-platform strategy to win over millennials in a rapidly evolving digital space with outstanding success.

    “We launched three major web series Girl In the City season 1, 2 and The Trip, and we saw phenomenal success. We have got 180 million views across Facebook and Youtube. The core of web — whichever format and medium they are using — is great storytelling, and that’s what brand bindass stands for. Also these are the sponsored content, we worked with brands. We integrate their stories as the part of the content but the core again be true to the story. Even the music was independently featured on Hungama, iTunes etc.”

    bindass will now welcome a slew of new series which will kick off with the launch of Dil Buffering and TereLiye Bro in the next two months.

    The 10-episodic series Dil Buffering is a love story which will go on air from 29 September at 7pm time slot with simulcast on all Youtube Facebook and TV. The channel has tied up with brands like Micromax, Tinder, Sofy and Ginger by lifestyle. The channel is in talks for their next web series.

  • Abhishek Maheshwari takes charge of Disney Media, Subramaniam quits

    MUMBAI: Vijay Subramaniam has called it a day at Disney India as the vice-president for Media Networks. He has decided to pursue other career interests.

    Abhishek Maheshwari, who is currently serving as the vice-president and head of the consumer products, Interactive & Corporate Strategy for Disney India, will take charge of Disney Media Networks. He will lead the new strategic initiatives to prepare the Media Networks business for the new digital world.

    Maheshwari will also continue to lead the Interactive business.

    Sanjeet Mehta has been promoted as the head of Disney Consumer Products (DCP) and will be responsible for the licensing and retail businesses.

    Subramaniam was in charge of a bouquet of eight channels across three segments, youth – bindass and bindass Play, movies – UTV Movies and UTV Action and Kids – Disney Channel India, Disney XD India, Disney Junior India and Hungama TV.

    As the vice-president for Media Networks, he led the unique media solutions division called the Disney Media Plus that offers commercial opportunities generated by the Disney universe in India in addition to creating specialized properties under the bindass brand.

  • Disney India’s Captain America rings in 70 brands; raises Rs 150 crore

    Disney India’s Captain America rings in 70 brands; raises Rs 150 crore

    MUMBAI: You know you are doing something right when you beat your own record and that is exactly what Disney India has done for their chef d’oeuvre — Captain America: Civil War, which is produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. The studio has gone ahead and signed media and merchandising deals with 70 brands, one upping their previous record of 50 brand associations each for Star Wars: The Force Awakens  and Avengers: Age of Ultron.

    “For the India market, we have a record number of 70 brands collaborating for Captain America: Civil War, which is a testament to its growing popularity. This is by far the highest for any Hollywood or Bollywood movie,” asserted Disney India, consumer products VP and head Abhishek Maheshwari.

    Disney India’s consumer product business has associated with a wide variety of brands in categories such as apparel, toys, FMCG, ecommerce, accessories, finance and more. To make the most of these partnerships, the brands too are leaving no stone unturned in promoting the film.

    When asked why brand association with a movie like Captain America is a good opportunity for an eCommerce brand, Amazon.in category management VP Samir Kumar replied, “In the past, we have  experienced the excitement from  fans who flock to the Amazon.in marketplace and love to shop for their favourite movie merchandise as the movie readies for release. Disney movies has ardent fans, so we look forwards to making their shopping experience delightful this time too.”

    As per a source close to the development, around Rs 150 crore have been raised through these associations, with Rs 35-40 crore coming from  ATL and BTL promotions (across five brands, Lifebuoy, Axe, Nearbuy, Dell and Audi) and Rs 100-110 crore through retail sales value.

    Disney India claims that it is the growing popularity of superhero based Hollywood blockbusters in the country that is attracting brands to pump in huge amount of ATL & BTL spends. The Jungle Book’shumongous success in the Indian box office has also solidified the brands’ faith in the popularity of international movies.

    “Over the years, the Hindi audience for Marvel’s movies has grown rapidly and we are doing a lot of promotions for Marvel fans also,” shared Disney India studios VP Amrita Pandey, adding that to make the movie more relatable to the Indian audience Varun  Dhawan was the voice actor for Captain America in the movie.

    “We build our franchises through our content across Films, Television and Digital. We have a long term vision for our franchises and in the case of Marvel, we have our movie slate chalked out for the next five years, which our partners value,” Maheshwari added.

    Some of these innovative associations include, Jack & Jones’ apparel range inspired by ‘Civil War’, ICICI Bank’s co-branded Civil War Expression debit cards, Funskool’s latest range of action figures, playsets, board games and role-play items of Marvel Super Heroes.

    “Captain America: Civil War is the most anticipated movie of this year, packed with Super Heroes, making it a visual delight for fans. With the immensely strong affinity for Marvel Super Heroes, toy lines across key categories such as collectibles, role-play and construction will be the main drivers to get the excitement going. We have launched a wide range of Hasbro products including figurines and role-play sets, Lego construction sets, as well as board games for kids and young adults”, Funskool sales and marketing SVP R Jeswant quipped on their association with Disney India.

    Apart from this Lifebuoy has released 46 lakhs packs inspired by Captain America: Civil War & Iron Man movie art. Axe too is promoting their variants of Champion and Maverick with Captain America and Iron Man respectively, while Lanmart is carrying out a massive in store promotion for brand Captain America.

    While Marvel fans eagerly await 6 May for the movie’s India release to enjoy their favourite superheroes or to  flock the theaters for the stellar starcast — Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Don Cheadle, Jeremy Renner,  and many more — brands ride high on the ‘Civil War’ wave.

  • Disney India’s Captain America rings in 70 brands; raises Rs 150 crore

    Disney India’s Captain America rings in 70 brands; raises Rs 150 crore

    MUMBAI: You know you are doing something right when you beat your own record and that is exactly what Disney India has done for their chef d’oeuvre — Captain America: Civil War, which is produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. The studio has gone ahead and signed media and merchandising deals with 70 brands, one upping their previous record of 50 brand associations each for Star Wars: The Force Awakens  and Avengers: Age of Ultron.

    “For the India market, we have a record number of 70 brands collaborating for Captain America: Civil War, which is a testament to its growing popularity. This is by far the highest for any Hollywood or Bollywood movie,” asserted Disney India, consumer products VP and head Abhishek Maheshwari.

    Disney India’s consumer product business has associated with a wide variety of brands in categories such as apparel, toys, FMCG, ecommerce, accessories, finance and more. To make the most of these partnerships, the brands too are leaving no stone unturned in promoting the film.

    When asked why brand association with a movie like Captain America is a good opportunity for an eCommerce brand, Amazon.in category management VP Samir Kumar replied, “In the past, we have  experienced the excitement from  fans who flock to the Amazon.in marketplace and love to shop for their favourite movie merchandise as the movie readies for release. Disney movies has ardent fans, so we look forwards to making their shopping experience delightful this time too.”

    As per a source close to the development, around Rs 150 crore have been raised through these associations, with Rs 35-40 crore coming from  ATL and BTL promotions (across five brands, Lifebuoy, Axe, Nearbuy, Dell and Audi) and Rs 100-110 crore through retail sales value.

    Disney India claims that it is the growing popularity of superhero based Hollywood blockbusters in the country that is attracting brands to pump in huge amount of ATL & BTL spends. The Jungle Book’shumongous success in the Indian box office has also solidified the brands’ faith in the popularity of international movies.

    “Over the years, the Hindi audience for Marvel’s movies has grown rapidly and we are doing a lot of promotions for Marvel fans also,” shared Disney India studios VP Amrita Pandey, adding that to make the movie more relatable to the Indian audience Varun  Dhawan was the voice actor for Captain America in the movie.

    “We build our franchises through our content across Films, Television and Digital. We have a long term vision for our franchises and in the case of Marvel, we have our movie slate chalked out for the next five years, which our partners value,” Maheshwari added.

    Some of these innovative associations include, Jack & Jones’ apparel range inspired by ‘Civil War’, ICICI Bank’s co-branded Civil War Expression debit cards, Funskool’s latest range of action figures, playsets, board games and role-play items of Marvel Super Heroes.

    “Captain America: Civil War is the most anticipated movie of this year, packed with Super Heroes, making it a visual delight for fans. With the immensely strong affinity for Marvel Super Heroes, toy lines across key categories such as collectibles, role-play and construction will be the main drivers to get the excitement going. We have launched a wide range of Hasbro products including figurines and role-play sets, Lego construction sets, as well as board games for kids and young adults”, Funskool sales and marketing SVP R Jeswant quipped on their association with Disney India.

    Apart from this Lifebuoy has released 46 lakhs packs inspired by Captain America: Civil War & Iron Man movie art. Axe too is promoting their variants of Champion and Maverick with Captain America and Iron Man respectively, while Lanmart is carrying out a massive in store promotion for brand Captain America.

    While Marvel fans eagerly await 6 May for the movie’s India release to enjoy their favourite superheroes or to  flock the theaters for the stellar starcast — Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Don Cheadle, Jeremy Renner,  and many more — brands ride high on the ‘Civil War’ wave.

  • Disney India cooperated with Crime Branch to check fake Disney products

    Disney India cooperated with Crime Branch to check fake Disney products

    MUMBAI: As the world’s leading entertainment brand, consumers trust the Disney brand to signify authentic products that are of the highest quality and safety standards. To ensure this, Disney works closely with multiple agencies around the world to protect the Intellectual Property and Brand. These agencies identify piracy at all levels and then take the appropriate action to stem it.

    As part of its ongoing enforcement campaign, Disney India today cooperated with the Crime Branch Control and the officers of Pydhonie Police Station in their raid against three targets namely Parth Collection, Swastik Collection, and Tip Top Plastic, wholesale dealers in school products, stationery and other products operating out of Abdul Rehman Street in Mumbai. 1313 units of goods were seized at Parth Collection, 138 units of goods were seized at Swastik Collection and 596 units of goods were seized at Tip Top Plastic respectively. The owners/ proprietors of the stores, Mr Jaisil Mohan Patkar of Parth Collection, Mr Ramesh Kanji Gami of Swastik Collection and Mr Jitender Doshi of Tip Top Plastic, were arrested on charges of criminal counterfeiting. Investigations are ongoing to identify the source and/ or locations of the manufacturers of these seized goods, who will also be prosecuted as appropriate.

    “We see this as a good first step to protect the integrity of the products that consumers buy from a trusted brand.  Disney’s consumer products in India spans across multiple lines including, fashion apparel, home, toys, consumer electronics, stationery, food, health and beauty and publishing. We applaud the efforts of the Crime Branch Control in not only protecting the rights of trusted brand owners, but also protecting Indian consumers from purchasing falsely branded and inferior products”, said Disney India consumer products VP and head Abhishek Maheshwari .

    Disney has renewed its focus on counterfeiting within India.  Disney’s efforts include working with government agencies and local police.  To assist in these efforts, Disney asks that the public report any suspected infringements through an email account Tips@DisneyAntipiracy.com, which it has set up for this purpose.  Disney takes seriously any suspected violation of its intellectual property rights and cooperates with the appropriate agencies to pursue reported violators.  

  • Disney India cooperated with Crime Branch to check fake Disney products

    Disney India cooperated with Crime Branch to check fake Disney products

    MUMBAI: As the world’s leading entertainment brand, consumers trust the Disney brand to signify authentic products that are of the highest quality and safety standards. To ensure this, Disney works closely with multiple agencies around the world to protect the Intellectual Property and Brand. These agencies identify piracy at all levels and then take the appropriate action to stem it.

    As part of its ongoing enforcement campaign, Disney India today cooperated with the Crime Branch Control and the officers of Pydhonie Police Station in their raid against three targets namely Parth Collection, Swastik Collection, and Tip Top Plastic, wholesale dealers in school products, stationery and other products operating out of Abdul Rehman Street in Mumbai. 1313 units of goods were seized at Parth Collection, 138 units of goods were seized at Swastik Collection and 596 units of goods were seized at Tip Top Plastic respectively. The owners/ proprietors of the stores, Mr Jaisil Mohan Patkar of Parth Collection, Mr Ramesh Kanji Gami of Swastik Collection and Mr Jitender Doshi of Tip Top Plastic, were arrested on charges of criminal counterfeiting. Investigations are ongoing to identify the source and/ or locations of the manufacturers of these seized goods, who will also be prosecuted as appropriate.

    “We see this as a good first step to protect the integrity of the products that consumers buy from a trusted brand.  Disney’s consumer products in India spans across multiple lines including, fashion apparel, home, toys, consumer electronics, stationery, food, health and beauty and publishing. We applaud the efforts of the Crime Branch Control in not only protecting the rights of trusted brand owners, but also protecting Indian consumers from purchasing falsely branded and inferior products”, said Disney India consumer products VP and head Abhishek Maheshwari .

    Disney has renewed its focus on counterfeiting within India.  Disney’s efforts include working with government agencies and local police.  To assist in these efforts, Disney asks that the public report any suspected infringements through an email account Tips@DisneyAntipiracy.com, which it has set up for this purpose.  Disney takes seriously any suspected violation of its intellectual property rights and cooperates with the appropriate agencies to pursue reported violators.  

  • Disney looks to exploit ‘Arjun’ across platforms; launches merchandise, mobile game

    Disney looks to exploit ‘Arjun’ across platforms; launches merchandise, mobile game

    MUMBAI: Eyeing a bigger share of the merchandising and gaming pie, Disney India has now expanded its product offering by launching a mobile game and merchandise for its television series Arjun: Prince of Bali.

    Launched about three weeks back, Disney’s first local animation property Arjun: The Prince of Bali, developed in association with Green Gold Animation has tasted success in its first series and is back again to engage kids through a new range of merchandise and a game inspired by the show.

    While in the first season of the show, one episode a week was aired, the second season will have two new episodes, which will air every Thursday and Friday at 3 pm.

    Speaking about the same, Disney India VP and head content and communication media networks Vijay Subramaniam said, “Disney Channel in India tells uniquely tailored stories through great characters. The first season of Arjun gained immense popularity amongst our young viewers and we saw the potential to give them more opportunities to enjoy the story while continuing to entertain with the second season on the channel. Arjun inspired merchandise and a game will provide kids with a stronger and deeper engagement with their favourite local stories.”

    Green Gold Animation founder and managing director Rajiv Chilaka added, “The audience has always got to see the princess in all Disney movies and series and probably for the first time the Indian audience will witness the Prince of Disney. It is a flamboyant character and we intend to showcase a lot of comedy, action and adventure with this show.”

    The show’s second series continues to narrate the story of Prince Arjun of Bali and will focus on his coming of age journey as he now matures into a valiant prince while continuing to master newer techniques and strategies of warfare. The new series also explores the relationships with his friends and family and brings to light the jovial and lively side to the warrior prince.

    The runner game around the show is set in the kingdom of Bali and is developed by Disney India’s Interactive division, Indiagames. The mobile game has features like weapon upgrades to make characters stronger as the levels progress.

    “With an interesting storyline, beautiful landscapes and popular local characters, the Arjun series makes for an interesting game play. By integrating elements from the show and building on the character traits in the game, we were looking at giving fans an opportunity to interact with Arjun and his friends beyond the show and create an all immersive gaming experience for them,” said Disney India VP and head interactive Sameer Ganapathy.

    The consumer products around the show will be extended across a range of products from toys, back to school merchandise, apparel to stationery. Toys also include figurines, bow and arrow set and more. In addition to this, plans are also afoot to develop school supplies such as school bags, lunch boxes, water bottles, note-books and home decor with bed sheet sets, cushions and mugs.

    With 26 episodes of 22 minutes each, the series will go on for 13 weeks. Post that, Disney Channel will either add more episodes or bring in the show’s next season.

    Speaking about the launch of merchandise, Disney India VP and head consumer products Abhishek Maheshwari said, “Kids today adore local animation and want to own a piece of their favourite character on their everyday products. The popularity of the Arjun series and the appeal of its characters amongst kids have inspired an entire range of interesting consumer products. Each character possesses a unique characteristic which can be leveraged very well across categories.”

    When queried about launching the merchandising at this stage of the local animation series, Ganapathy said, “The success of the first series made us come up with merchandising and a mobile app. Another reason is that we wanted to engage kids in as many ways as possible, so after the show they can get along with the game and engage with us.”

    “The IP holds a lot of potential and that is the reason why we got into merchandising and a mobile game at this stage of our local animation. Disney’s strategy has always been to cater to multiple platforms and that’s what we want to do with Arjun as well,” Maheshwari added.

    Currently, the app has a sizable number of downloads on the Google Play Store. The app will also be made available on the Windows and iOS platform soon.