Disney Star restructures its leadership team

Media and entertainment conglomerate Disney Star, the local unit of the Walt Disney Co, has rejigged its internal leadership team following the exit of Kevin Vaz, former head of network entertainment channels, this April. The changes were communicated in an internal email by K Madhavan, country manager for Disney Star.

In addition to leading content studio for TV and Disney+ Hotstar, the company’s video streaming platform, Gaurav Banerjee will now be responsible for Star Bharat, Hindi and English Movies cluster, kids and infotainment and the regional portfolio (East) comprising Star Jalsha and Star Kiran. Banerjee will continue to report to Madhavan.

Krishnan Kutty will now be the business and content head for the entire South and Marathi regional portfolio, comprising Star Suvarna, Star Maa, Asianet, Star Vijay, Star Pravah and Disney+ Hotstar regional specials for these markets, reporting directly to Madhavan.

Sumanta Bose will continue as the business head for Star Plus and Star Utsav, reporting directly to Madhavan and will additionally lead content for Star Plus, Star Jalsha and Disney+ Hotstar Hindi specials, for which he will report to Banerjee with an additional line of reporting to Sajith Sivanandan, head of Disney+ Hotstar.

Alok Jain, who oversaw Star MAA, Star Jalsha, Star Kiran and Star Suvarna, has chosen to quit the organization and pursue an opportunity elsewhere.

“The following changes will allow us to create a more efficient and streamlined approach to our revenue, marketing and operations functions,” the email added.

Disney Star did not respond to queries on leadership changes.

In addition to overseeing technology and operations for the Disney cluster, Mani Rangarajan will assume complete oversight of these functions for the network. Accordingly, Vivek Dhaimade, head of traffic and presentation and Gajendra Tijare, head of broadcast technology and operations will report to him.

Minakshi Achan, in addition to her current role as head of creative communications, will also oversee social listening. Venke Sharma, head of distillery, will report to her.

Star India reported a 74% increase in its consolidated net profit for the financial year ended 31 March 2022. The company’s profit jumped to ₹1421.27 crore from ₹815.72 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

According to data accessed by business intelligence platform Tofler, the company’s revenues for the financial year stood at Rs. 17,480.62 crore, a 38% jump over ₹12,664.36 crore in the year-ago period. Live Mint