MUMBAI: Star India announced a series of leadership changes as part of an organizational shift to strategic business units where Uday Shankar will be chairman and CEO.The current COO Sanjay Gupta has been elevated to Star India’s managing director and K. Madhavan will be managing director-South.
Both Gupta and Madhavan will continue to report to Shankar. These changes position the organization to meet its future growth ambitions on the back of a decade of rapid growth.
“Star India consistently sets the standard for innovation and growth in one of the world’s most exciting markets,” said 21st Century Fox chief executive officer James Murdoch. “Uday, Sanjay, Madhavan and the entire Star India team have built a world-class business that has grown at double the industry rate. We are proud of its success and look forward to the next chapter of growth under Uday’s transformational leadership.”
Star has established empowered business units each with its own CEO reporting to Sanjay Gupta. Amit Chopra appointed as CEO of entertainment, which spans drama and movie channels across national and regional channels in Hindi, English, Bengali and Marathi. While, Sports CEO Nitin Kukreja, which includes a leading portfolio of channels under the Star Sports banner.
Ajit Mohan is now CEO digital, which oversees Hotstar, Star’s revolutionary digital platform which recently surpassed 50 million downloads and Vijay Singh has also been upped as the CEO of Fox Star Studios, which produces and distributes Bollywood and Regional films.
Kevin Vaz has been appointed as South CEO and will be reporting to K. Madhavan. The South business unit incorporates all of Star’s business interests in the Southern states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
In another first, a pan-India content studio will be set up to drive cutting edge innovation in programming under Gaurav Banerjee who will report into Sanjay Gupta. The corporate centre will continue largely unchanged.
“I congratulate Sanjay, Madhavan and the CEOs on their elevation. This is a world class team that has powered Star to the No. 1 position in the media and entertainment industry in India. Now, I personally and the entire team are even more dedicated to the cause of using Star’s reach in India to inspire the imaginations of a billion Indians. To do this, we need to continuously innovate and disrupt. We have set ourselves a bold growth agenda and these changes will deepen the leadership bench, unlock entrepreneurial energy and position Star better to deliver on its ambitions,” said Star India chairman & CEO Uday Shankar.
