Neeraj Roy, CEO and founder, Hungama Digital Media Entertainment, was inducted into the 'Hall of Fame' at the IAA Leadership Awards in August.

We caught up with Roy soon after to chat with him about the award, among other topics.

"Being inducted into the hall of fame is humbling, to say the least. It reflects the way our communication industry is merging with what we call media, social media and all these different manifestations. These used to be different arms of the broader ecosystem, but are now coming together. I may be the face of this, but it is also a sign of things to come," he said.

Roy stated that he sees a unified word which brings together storytellers.

"We used to have the traditional ‘advertising industry’, ‘film industry’, ‘music industry’ and ‘broadcast industry’. Now, we are gearing up for a unified world. The way one used data and research to create an ad film was very different from the way a filmmaker used instinct to create one. Now, we are heading into some interesting times which will be very disruptive, and I think people are missing this. There is space for everyone who is remotely part of this ecosystem to move up the value chain," he added.

The role of people as technology evolves

While Roy claims that there is space for everyone to move up the value chain, there are job losses across the industries he spoke about, causing widespread concern across the future of many employees.

Roy relates to those concerns but believes creativity and the people behind it won't be going anywhere.

"Let’s go back 25-30 years. Even the largest advertisers had perhaps two campaigns coming out in a year. When one moves from that to the pace of things today, there is fascination, amazement and, as you mentioned, a feeling of being petrified. But if one goes deeper into why this is happening, digital has reached a stage where one can personalise communication and create smaller cohorts. That calls for more targeted and context-driven communication, and we are seeing it happen. But the creativity and the people behind it don’t go away," he said.

The full conversation with Roy, which includes conversations with Sir Martin Sorrell, the future of agencies, a response to his naysayers, is available in the September issue of Manifest, which can be bought here.