Disney Star rejigs leadership team; Gaurav Banerjee’s role expanded

Nearly two months after Kevin Vaz quit as Head – Network Entertainment Channels, Disney Star, the network has announced several organizational changes.

According to an internal mail written by K Madhavan (Country Manager and President, Disney Star), a copy of which is available with e4m, in addition to leading Content Studio for TV and Disney+ Hotstar, Gaurav Banerjee will now be responsible for Star Bharat, Hindi and English Movies cluster, Kids & Infotainment and the regional portfolio (East) comprising Star Jalsha and Star Kiran. Gaurav will continue to report to Madhavan.

Krishnan Kutty will now be the Business and Content Head for the entire South & Marathi regional portfolio, comprising Star Suvarna, Star Maa, Asianet, Star Vijay, Star Pravah and D+ H Regional Specials for these markets. He too will report 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 Gaurav 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 move on.

Further, 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 & Presentation and Gajendra Tijare, Head of Broadcast Technology & 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.

All the changes will be effective immediately.