The Walt Disney Company India and Star India, under the leadership of President K Madhavan, have announced restructuring and expansion of the current business structure and roles in an internal mail.
Kevin Vaz, who is currently the Head of Infotainment, Kids & Regional Entertainment Channels- Star and Disney India, will head the entertainment segment of Star & Disney India with responsibilities of the entire entertainment channel business including Regional channels, Kids & Infotainment, Star Plus, Star Bharat, Star Utsav, Hindi Movies and the English cluster.
Apart from the regional content for OTT, Gaurav Banerjee will lead the HSM Entertainment content and Disney+ Hotstar. Banerjee will be responsible for the viewership of the same.
With an aim to regulate Disney India’s structure with the global direct-to-consumer business and growth strategy, the organisation is all set to create a separate powerhouse for content creation.
Star Plus GM Sumanta Bose, Arpit Mankar, GM, Star Bharat, and Hemal Jhaveri, GM – Hindi Movies Star India GM will now report to Vaz. Arghya Chakravarty, Star India EVP — Ad Sales, Entertainment Business who has been reporting to Nitin Bawankule- Head of Ad Sales will have a dotted line reporting to Kevin for HSM Ad sales.
The Head of Content for all Hindi channels and Nikhil Madhok, EVP & Head Hotstar Original Content will continue to report to Banerjee for HSM content development and D+H originals, respectively. Hemal Jhaveri will have a dotted line reporting to Gaurav for digital movie rights.
Disney+ Hotstar’s Dhawal Gosain, who is responsible of Operations, Insights, and New Initiatives, will also have a dotted line reporting to Gaurav.