MUMBAI: Film star Aamir Khan has been passionate about Satyamev Jayate, and it was thanks to his passion and the great platform and tremendous support he received from Star India, that today, his show has turned out to be India’s most meaningful and impactful TV show for positive social change.
So it was understandable that Aamir Khan was delighted when Star India CEO Uday Shankar was named the Impact Person of The Decade – an award he received from the Governor of Maharashtra, C V Rao, in Mumbai.
The prestigious award recognizes the one individual who has made maximum and far-reaching impact on and influenced and helped shape the media, marketing and advertising industry tremendously over the last 10 years. And obviously, amongst the many initiatives that Star India leader Uday Shankar has rolled out over the past decade, one of the most significant, with tremendous positive social impact, has been Satyamev Jayate with Aamir Khan.
“I’ve known Uday for about five years now — his razor-sharp mind, his intelligence, his courage, his boldness to take difficult decisions…” Aamir Khan told a galaxy of top professionals through a recorded message at the award ceremony, adding, “Uday believes in the impossible! That is why he achieves the impossible!”
An initiative of the scale of Satyamev Jayate could never have been executed to perfection unless both leaders of the show – Aamir Khan and Uday Shankar – did not have the same kind of passionate belief in and commitment to working for social good through the show.
This shared passion and commitment was obvious when Uday Shankar, who believes strongly in collaboration, told the audience in his acceptance speech, that “The willingness to collaborate has been built on solid conviction to do the right thing – not just for Star but for the entire industry and society. The conviction to not do regressive content, the conviction to not compromise the larger interest of community and the conviction to be not bogged down by fear of failure.”
Referring to three other top, acclaimed Bollywood film directors whom Star India brought to television, Uday Shankar said, “If at Star we have been able to change the content landscape, that’s happened largely because Star has shown a better ability to attract and work with an eclectic spectrum of talent – be it the likes of Aamir Khan or Karan Johar or Ashutosh Gowarikar or Sanjay Leela Bhansali. Together we have all raised the bar for content at Star.”
