98
About
Ninety-Eight Entertainment — est. 01.01.2020
Not just a company, but a collective for the culture.
Patterns are evidence. Principles are marketing. So each of ours comes with a receipt.
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01
Rooms, not inboxes.
The first client was pitched in person, at midnight, on the first day of the decade. It’s still the method.
Receipt: Esquire Club, 01.01.2020 ↓
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Partners, not vendors.
A vendor sells hours. A partner takes on what you’re trying to scale, and when we believe in the outcome, we take equity instead of fees.
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Work is sacred.
A brief is a craft problem, not a billing event. A camera finds the detail you didn’t sweat.
Receipt: Borges India — the dented almond-milk pack we caught before shoot day →
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A level playing field.
Our look comes from Massimo Vignelli’s New York: the city of hip-hop, jazz and immigrants making it. Pluralism is how we cast, too — one voice per audience class, never five from the same shelf.
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We publish our sourcing.
Every result we quote opens a case you can read. Where there is no case yet, the page says so.
Receipt: How we count a creator campaign →
01
- Before
Engineering, research at Georgia Tech, and a camera: photography, design, film, dance videos with a friend. A fairly humble start; some of my cousins still drive auto-rickshaws in the village.
- 2020
1 January, midnight. While my friends partied, I went home early with one of them to pitch his father, who ran a nightclub. Esquire Club became the first client, before 98 had a name.
- 2020
I pitched Pratima Singh, who captained India at basketball, and ran her social media. When her husband, Ishant Sharma, left his management agency, she gave me the chance to manage him. I was twenty. Four years earlier I’d been talking about his bowling in a classroom.
Ishant’s Test shirt, signed by the team; photographed December 2022 - 2021
Friends left for master’s degrees and placements. I rented 250 square feet, stayed its only employee, and kept the lights on with one cloud kitchen’s retainer. I’d made a fool of myself in meetings, so I took a speaking course. Then I started cold calling. It is humbling. You lose all shame.
- 2022
ISB admitted me. I deferred, and the safety net made me take bigger risks. Ishant signed with us exclusively; restaurants came on from Bombay, Bangalore and Delhi NCR. Things have a lagging effect.
The Ryan Dsouza Podcast, episode 141, September 2022 - 2023
Fifty-five clients on the roster, and I wasn’t happy: no social life, family and health last. I couldn’t hand 98 to anyone, so I wound it down on purpose and closed the loop before ISB.
The new office, January 2023 - 2024
ISB. The structure, and the science behind what I had been doing by hand.
ISB, April 2024 - 2025
A year off, unlearning the hustle.
- 2026
98 starts again. Sensibly, this time.
02
The name
Where 98 comes from
The honest one
A grey wall with 98 written on it in white, spotted while Harsh was shooting dance videos for a friend’s YouTube channel. Whenever he started something, he said, he’d call it 98. The 98 at the top of this page comes from that wall.
The other one
Off the record.
03
The facts
As it standsIn one line:Ninety-Eight is a creative and strategic firm that works as a business partner, not a vendor: talent, branding and marketing for the people building the next decade’s businesses. Delhi NCR, since 1 January 2020.
Fact:As it stands:
NameNinety-Eight Entertainment — 98, Ninety-Eight
Founded1 January 2020 — the first day of the decade. First client the same night: Esquire Club, a Delhi nightclub, pitched in person.
FounderHarsh Arya — an engineer by training, with research at Georgia Tech; ISB; a photographer and filmmaker before the firm; writes economics for The Economic Times
Runs2020–2023, the first run · 2024, ISB · 2025, a year off · 2026, again
BasedDelhi NCR, India
VerticalsTalent & Branding · Marketing · 98 Studio, in beta
InstrumentsBranding · PR & Media · Creators · Social · Production · Events
The book70+ brands, 2020–2023 · 35 documented cases · hospitality the deepest, talent the rarest
TalentIshant Sharma — exclusive representation, agency of record, won in 2022 · Pratima Singh
AwardsTimes Food Awards 2023: Best Italian Casual Dining, Delhi (Tablespoon); Best Asian Casual Dining, Delhi (Yum Yum Cha) · UNLIMIT 2023: Best Pan-Asian Restaurant in India (Yum Yum Cha) — one client group, one year
On the recordET BrandEquity and NPCI on RuPay × IPL 2022, fronted by our talent · Gen Z Economics, with Prof. Tantri (ISB) · Josh Talks · the Delhi Capitals podcast · The Ryan Dsouza Podcast, episode 141
Contactcontact@ninety-eight.in · WhatsApp · @98.entertainment
Business partners for hire — to help you scale.
Tell us what you’re building →
Sourcing. The short version is Harsh’s own account, edited for length; the pictures are his, dated as captioned. Every receipt is on this site: Esquire Club in the case directory, and the Arista Vault, Borges India and Poetry cases. The awards are from the Times Food Awards and UNLIMIT 2023 citations in the Yum Yum Cha Group case; the contract from the Ishant Sharma case.