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Executive Dossier

Zingaat is the Las Vegas of Marathi entertainment, says Vikas Varma

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After creating 9XM,  Hummra M, Music F Fatafati, Bflix Movies,  Dicky “Speak” Pvt Ltd CEO Vikas Varma has launched his own Marathi music TV channel Zingaat. Apart from Varma,  Ramesh Jassani, Shirish Ruparel and  Narayan Sharma own shares in the company.  “All four of us bring tremendous television, advertising and media experience to the table making this a formidable combination of content, distribution, advertising, sales and marketing. The four musketeers, together, are the life force of Zingaat,” said Verma.

In conversation with Indiantelevision.com’s Parvinder Sandhu, Vikas Varma shares his plans and insights into his channel. Excerpts:

Where did you see space for a new Marathi music channel? Weren’t there a plenty already?

A space or a vacuum need not exist for a product that is giving the viewers an entirely refreshing and new entertainment experience. Zingaat, as the name proclaims, is such a viewing experience, totally in tune with today’s Marathi viewer. Marathi movies and music, unjustly so, have for too long lived under the shadow of Bollywood. However, that has changed dramatically in the last few years. Marathi movies and music claimed and achieved its rightful top position and it was important to create a TV channel that reflects and celebrates just that. Thus, Zingaat.

Zingaat looks a little like what 9XM Hindi Music channel used to look when it was #1. Your comments on that.

9XM was created by me in 2007, which immediately became #1 in its second week of launch. But, that was in 2007, which I refer to as ‘Version-1’. After this, I created the Bhojpuri Music Channel, Hummra-M, which too became #1 and then Music-F Fatafati, the Bangla Music Channel, with similar results. Those were ‘Version-2 & 3’.

Zingaat is a fantastically upgraded and entertaining music channel, where I have used the accumulated experience of last 10 years, since I created 9XM, Hummra-M and Music-F Fatafati. Zingaat is as different from 9XM as iPhone-1 is different from iPhone-7. That, Zingaat is the only TV channel celebrating the new face, success and pride of Maharashtra, makes it even more exciting and fulfilling for me.

Shall we say Zingaat could have been inspired by ideas such as Sony Rox’ that primarily focuses on huge mainly-Hindi music popular in the sub-continent and among the diaspora across the globe?

The only inspiration that Zingaat had and continues to seek, is the joy and celebration of music. It is the Zingaat way of life. Our viewers experience this and participate in this joyfulness, eagerly and happily.

What has been your research in this context? What is your target group?

Youthfulness, music and joy has the infinite power to attract humans of all ages and demographics. Zingaat is this sparkling, joyful TV Channel that personifies these qualities. These qualities are highlighted by our Channel Super Heroes called, Ussal, Missal and Maddy. They sing, dance, play pranks, recite poems and represent the free spirit of Zingaat and all our viewers. One does not need research to tell us that almost everyone loves candy. However, under the hood of our brand Zingaat, lies the result of some serious content selection, which has been mood-mapped to perfection.

Our Super Heroes, Ussal, Missal and Maddy have been inspired by the colours of the rainbow and sound of falling rain, however the technology used to create them are cutting edge 3-D animation tools.

Which genres of music do you plan to have? Have any reality shows been planned too?

Zingaat is the Las Vegas of Marathi entertainment. Only the best acts come here. So, the display window showcases only Hit-Pe-Super-hit. Expect only the best of best on Zingaat. Yes, a few shows are in the pipeline, and we are very excited to be showcasing these products for the first time and in this manner to our viewers.

What are the marketing plans for Zingaat?

We have an extensive marketing plan in progress right now. This includes over 500 billboards all over Maharashtra as well as radio and TV spots. Our focus is also the interiors of Maharashtra where we will be taking road-shows and high-energy ground activation. That apart, we are organising contests for our viewers, with high-value premium gifts. And, not to forget movie halls and cinemas, where Zingaat will spread its joy and fun.

How are the viewers responding to Zingaat. How is the feedback?

The response has been phenomenal and in my experience, and unprecedented. Zingaat has a “Selfie’ showcase for our viewers on its TV screen which runs constantly 24X7. We have been getting thousands of beautiful selfies from our viewers non-stop. We are delighted to show-off our viewers happy faces on our channel. This is the age of the smart phone and Zingaat complements that as a ‘smart channel’.

Excited viewers result in super excited advertisers who have been meeting us and want to be a part of our mission to heighten viewer experience. So, a lot of Zingaat razzle-dazzle is spreading its magic all around. All I can say is, the party has just begun, wear your fanciest clothes and jump in!

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Executive Dossier

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

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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.

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Digital

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

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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”.

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Executive Dossier

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

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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.
 

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