Joseph Aranha

New York – Fox Chairman Peter Liguori was the keynote speaker at the recent SAMMA (South Asians in Media, Marketing and Entertainment Association) Summit and in his talk to the standing room crowd made clear that “content” was still king despite all the new avenues to reach the consumer.

The summit which was held at the Time Warner Global Headquarters hosted over 200 global leaders to learn about how South Asians are driving innovations and change in the media, marketing and entertainment worlds. They also came to learn how to reach the coveted South Asian market for South Asians and Indians in the US and also touched upon how to reach out to the Americans of Indian origin in the US.

Neal Shenoy, co-chair of the summit said that this year participants came from as far away as Mumbai and Los Angeles. South Asians he said had made major inroads in Hollywood and across the US.

The Indian entertainment and media industry is the second fastest growing industry in the world said Pradeep Guha former CEO of one of India’s largest entertainment conglomerates ZeeTelefilms and former President of the Times of India Group.

Also the escalating partnership between Hollywood and Bollywood were discussed in depth by distinguished producer and director Rohan Sippy, Disney International Senior Vice President Michael Andreen, Sahara One’s Sanjay Chitale and also by Gotham Entertainment CEO Sharad Devarajan, who launched Spider-man India.

Other groups provided case studies of how they are redefining the boundaries between music, film and television.

Rajan Shah, a co-founder of SAMMA said that entertainment had changed from a local activity to a multi-faceted global enterprise both in the US and India.

Indians boast not only quite a few millionaires but Executives from major ad agencies who are Indian seem to have taken the lead in marketing global products with global brand names like Samsung, FedEx, Coca-cola to mention a few.

“We are at the brink of transforming the world” said Madhu Goel, a SAMMA co-founder.

SAMMA was founded in 2006 to network and promote the growing industry of South Asians in media, marketing and entertainment. The group has more than 1000 members from across the business landscape – from Fortune 500 global brands to start-up ventures. More information can be had about this association from www.sammasummit.com.

Four South Asian pioneers were honored with “Trialblazer” awards for their innovative efforts this year. They were Mallika Dutt, founder and director of “Breakthrough”, Rohan Sippy critically acclaimed Bollywood producer and director, Rohan Oza vice president of marketing at Glaceau and Vivek Shah, president of Fortune/Money Group.