The Media Room

In Episode 15 of The Media Room, media journalist and author Vanita Kohli-Khandekar talks to Vikram Mehra, Managing Director of Saregama, one of India’s oldest and most iconic music labels, about how the business of music is evolving in the digital age. From reviving nostalgia with the Carvaan to investing in generative AI with IIT Bombay, Mehra outlines how Saregama is balancing tradition and innovation to stay culturally relevant...

In Episode 14 of The Media Room, media journalist and author Vanita Kohli-Khandekar talks to Jyoti Deshpande, President of Media & Content Business at Reliance Industries Ltd (which includes Jio Studios) and an influential figure in India’s media and entertainment sector, about the evolving dynamics of the Indian film business. From building one of the country’s most ambitious studio slates at Jio Studios to navigating the frag...

In Episode 13 of The Media Room, media journalist and author Vanita Kohli-Khandekar talks to John Couling, Senior Vice President at Dolby Laboratories, about the future of cinema, the rise of immersive storytelling, and why India is central to Dolby’s global growth plans. From the opening of the first Dolby Cinema in Pune to the company’s deepening relationships with Indian creators like S.S. Rajamouli, Couling explains how Dolby A...

In Episode 12 of The Media Room, media journalist and author Vanita Kohli-Khandekar talks to Anant Goenka, Executive Director of The Indian Express Group about the future of legacy media in a digital-first world. From competing with influencers for attention to holding ground in an algorithm-driven landscape, Goenka shares what it takes to stay relevant without losing credibility. He opens up about the need for domain expertise in ...

In Episode 11 of The Media Room, media expert and author Vanita Kohli-Khandekar is joined by Shubha Pai (Head of Sales & Solutions in India at YouTube), Anand Bhaskaran (Head of Marketing at BigBasket) and Aakash Chopra (Commentator and YouTube Content Creator) to unpack the evolving world of digital advertising. With the IPL in focus, the panel dives into the rise of short-form and connected TV content, how creator-driven stor...

In Episode 10 of The Media Room, media expert and author Vanita Kohli-Khandekar is joined by Sidharth Jain, Founder and Chief Storyteller at THE STORY INK. They talk about the urgent need to nurture original voices, the pitfalls of data-driven decision-making, and why India needs more patrons and fewer proposals. Jain breaks down the challenges of being a writer in today's film economy, the importance of instinct over analytics...

In Episode 9 of The Media Room, media expert and author Vanita Kohli-Khandekar speaks to David Hancock, Chief Analyst, Media and Entertainment at Omdia and a leading expert on the global film and cinema market. They talk about the supply and demand dynamics of the film market, why theatres are still relevant as a revenue stream, how streaming services and theatres can co-exist, the finer details of the trump tariff on film producti...

In Episode 8 of The Media Room, media expert and author Vanita Kohli-Khandekar speaks to Frammer's co-founder and CEO, Suparna Singh. Frammer is an AI-based video tool that ingests hours of video, and then edits and packages it into bite sized videos and snippets for social media. She also talks to Mandar Natekar, co-founder and CEO of Neural Garage, which offers a visual dub technology that can lip sync voice dubs for other la...

In Episode 7 of The Media Room, media expert and author Vanita Kohli-Khandekar speaks to Amagi's co-founder and CEO, Baskar Subramanian. Amagi is a company that deals with cloud-based content management providing the backend to 60% of the top 100 media brands in the world such as NBC, Comcast, Sinclair, WarnerMedia Discovery, Fox, A&E, BBC, and ITV to name a few. In this episode and the next, Tune in for insights into the w...

 In Episode 6 of The Media Room, media expert and author Vanita Kohli-Khandekar speaks to Ashish Pherwani, EY India’s Media & Entertainment Leader. With the recent release of the FICCI-EY Media & Industry Report, they discuss some of the changes happening in film, TV, print, animation, music and other segments. Tune in for insights on the current landscape of the Indian media and entertainment business.

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In Episode 5 of The Media Room, media expert and author Vanita Kohli-Khandekar speaks to 2 experts, Harikrishnan Pillai co-founder and chief executive officer of digital marketing agency The Small Big Idea as well as Kalyan Kumar, co-founder and CEO of influencer marketing platform KlugKlug. They discuss the influencer economy, how marketing campaigns utilise influencers, the duopoly of Meta and Google, breaking down parameters and...

In Episode 4 of The Media Room, media expert and author Vanita Kohli-Khandekar speaks to 2 experts, Yatish Mehrishi, Chief Executive Officer for Entertainment Network India Limited (which owns Mirchi, India’s largest radio brand) as well as Shrikant Shenoy, Associate Vice President at the Interpublic Group to discuss how Radio in India has been boxed in by regulation, the reach and impact radio has today and what are some of the ch...

In Episode 3 of The Media Room, media expert and author Vanita Kohli-Khandekar speaks to 3 experts, Tony Gunnarsson, Principal Analyst, TV, Video & Advertising at Omdia, Vivek Couto, Managing & Executive Director at Media Partners Asia and Sameer Nair, Managing Director at Applause entertainment on the biggest change sweeping across the world of streaming - its linearisation. As Netflix, Amazon Prime, JioStar and others try...

In Episode 2 of The Media Room, media expert and author Vanita Kohli-Khandekar sits down with Girish Agarwal, non-executive director of the Dainik Bhaskar Corp, to discuss the current state of the newspaper industry. They talk about the impact of the pandemic on newspapers, why newspapers are still going strong in India, trends in newspaper readership, competition with digital media and much more.

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In our first episode of The Media Room, media expert and author Vanita Kohli-Khandekar sits down with Shailesh Kapoor, CEO of Ormax Media, to explore the interplay between data and creativity in the entertainment industry. Kapoor discusses in detail how Ormax Media uses its data models (which transformed post-pandemic) to help in both the pre-production and post-production phases of the content pipeline. He shares insights into Orm...

Join Vanita Kohli Khandekar as she takes you through a unique behind the scenes look at the inner workings and machinations of the media and entertainment business. She'll speak to experts, film makers, media barons, broadcasters, publishers, platforms, media analysts, and more, to give you insights on the intersection of storytelling, money, technology and communication in this rapidly evolving space.

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