Happy birthday Manish Singhal: Visionary who transformed Dangal into a national success

Manish Singhal’s journey in Indian broadcasting is a story of entrepreneurial conviction, audience understanding and the courage to challenge established players. As the founder of Enterr10 Television recently celebrated his birthday, the occasion offered an opportunity to recognise the vision behind the rise of Dangal TV.

Singhal established Enterr10 Television in 2004 from Indore, away from India’s traditional media centres of Mumbai and Delhi. What initially emerged as an extension of his shopping and tele-commerce business gradually evolved into an ambitious television venture.

The defining moment came with the launch of Dangal TV in 2009. Beginning its journey as a Bhojpuri movie channel, Dangal was repositioned as a Hindi general entertainment channel in 2015. The move demonstrated Singhal’s ability to identify shifts in audience preferences and build a differentiated offering for Hindi-speaking viewers.

With programming spanning family dramas, mythology and crime-based shows, Dangal steadily built a loyal audience across urban, semi-urban and rural markets. Its success challenged the long-held belief that only legacy broadcasters with large budgets and metropolitan operations could dominate the Hindi entertainment space.

At the heart of Singhal’s strategy has been a deep understanding of mass India. Instead of following industry trends, he focused on stories rooted in familiar emotions, relationships and cultural values. This audience-first approach helped Dangal connect with viewers across geographies and establish itself as a formidable player in the free-to-air television segment.

His competitive philosophy has been equally distinctive: “Dangal versus Dangal.” The idea reflects his belief that the network’s real benchmark should be its own previous performance rather than the achievements of its competitors.

Singhal also strengthened Dangal’s creative independence by investing in original, in-house programming. This gave the network greater control over content, production and scheduling while enabling it to respond quickly to changing viewer preferences.

As digital consumption began transforming the media landscape, Singhal extended the Dangal brand beyond linear television. The launch of Dangal Play in 2022 marked Enterr10’s entry into streaming and reflected its ambition to build a multiplatform entertainment business. The platform is spearheaded by his son, Akshat Singhal, bringing together Manish Singhal’s experience in mass-market broadcasting and the next generation’s digital-first outlook.

Under Singhal’s leadership, the network has also looked beyond India. Dangal’s distribution across international markets and the syndication of its content have helped take Indian entertainment to viewers worldwide. Its plans for regional and high-definition offerings further underline the company’s multilingual and multiplatform ambitions.

For advertisers, Dangal has emerged as a gateway to audiences in smaller cities, towns and rural markets. Its broad reach and understanding of mass-consumer behaviour have made it particularly relevant for brands seeking to deepen their presence beyond metropolitan India.

Singhal’s journey reflects the power of building from outside conventional industry corridors. From launching a television business in Indore to turning Dangal into a nationally recognised entertainment brand, he has demonstrated that strong audience insight, disciplined execution and bold decision-making can disrupt even the most competitive markets.