STAR India is already on the corrective course for the people problem that it is facing. The organisation has made internal announcements for some of its departments like Legal and HR. However, departments like Programming and Distribution are still craving for attention.
Even as many in the industry may be sure that Ajay Vidyasagar is all set to bid adieu to STAR India, however, in a recent internal announcement, Vidyasagar has been promoted from EVP-Content and Communication, to President-Content and New Media. The memo said that he is expected to develop the Internet space for STAR, working in coordination with Fox Interactive.
In his 12 year tenure at STAR India, Vidyasagar has played some role in almost all functions of STAR India, like the South operations at Star Vijay, Marketing, New Media, and of late, Content and Communication.
Another announcement made was that of Himavat Chaudhuri taking over as General Council, which means that he would be heading the legal department of the organisation. He replaces Ajay Sharma, who had recently put in his papers and is rumoured to head towards INX Media.
Sonali Thakkar will be looking after the function of Organisational Development and Talent Management. Thakkar has been in the HR function of STAR India for some time now and had moved to a News Corp project in the interim. She will directly report to Uday Shankar, COO, STAR India.
Interestingly, in addition to the three Presidents — Paritosh Joshi, President-Revenue; Vijay Singh, President-Strategy and Corporate Development; Vidyasagar — and Thakkar, Viren Popli, Head-Wireless Business; and Sanjay Jain, Head-Finance will all report to Shankar.
On being contacted, a STAR spokesperson confirmed all the above developments.