NEW DELHI : Media and entertainment conglomerate Walt Disney India has elevated Kevin Vaz, head of infotainment, kids and regional entertainment channels Star and Disney India as the head of entertainment at the company, two people familiar with the development said. Meanwhile, Gaurav Banerjee, president, Hindi entertainment, Star India, will now be head of content across the television and OTT (over-the-top) streaming platforms.
“We have ambitious plans to grow both Disney+ Hotstar and our TV Network at an accelerated pace, and to that end I wish to announce a realignment of our current business structure that would accelerate our growth agenda, helping us achieve these goals," K. Madhavan, country manager and president, the Walt Disney Company India and Star India said in an internal email.
Vaz who has been involved with the company’s regional entertainment network, will, in his expanded role as head of entertainment, have the P&L (profit and loss) responsibility for the entire entertainment channel business including regional channels, kids and infotainment, Star Plus, Star Bharat, Star Utsav, Hindi Movies and the English cluster. Going forward, Sumanta Bose, executive vice-president and general manager-Star Plus, Arpit Mankar, general manager, Star Bharat, and Hemal Jhaveri, executive vice-president at Star TV, will report to him. Arghya Chakravarty, executive vice-president, ad sales entertainment business, will have a dotted line reporting to Vaz for HSM (Hindi-speaking markets) ad sales in addition to his current reporting to Nitin Bawankule, head, ad sales at Disney Star TV network.
Gaurav Banerjee, so far, heading content for TV and the company’s video streaming service Hotstar, will now lead content for the overall HSM entertainment network, Disney+ Hotstar and regional content for OTT and will own the viewership responsibility for the same. The content heads for all Hindi channels and Nikhil Madhok, executive vice-president, Hotstar will continue to report to Banerjee for HSM content development and web originals respectively. Jhaveri will have a dotted line reporting to Banerjee for digital movie rights, as will Dhawal Gusain, ops, insights and new initiatives, Hotstar and regional channel general managers for Disney+ Hotstar content.
