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

Disney Star has restructured its leadership team by expanding Gaurav Banerjee's role and implementing various organisational changes. This occurred over a two-month period following the resignation of Kevin Vaz as Head of Network Entertainment Channels.

According to an internal email from K Madhavan (Country Manager and President, Disney Star), Gaurav Banerjee will now be in charge of Star Bharat, the Hindi and English Movies cluster, Kids & Infotainment, and the regional portfolio (East), which includes Star Jalsha and Star Kiran, in addition to leading Content Studio for TV and Disney+ Hotstar. Gaurav will keep informing Madhavan on his progress.

For the entire South & Marathi regional portfolio, which includes Star Suvarna, Star Maa, Asianet, Star Vijay, Star Pravah, and D+ H Regional Specials for these markets, Krishnan Kutty will now serve as the Business and Content Head. He too will answer to Madhavan personally.

Sumanta Bose will continue to lead content for Star Plus, Star Jalsha, and Disney+ Hotstar Hindi Specials, reporting to Gaurav Banerjee with an additional line of reporting to Sajith Sivanandan, Head of Disney+ Hotstar. He will also continue to serve as the business head for Star Plus and Star Utsav, reporting directly to Madhavan.

Alok Jain, who was in charge of Star Maa, Star Jalsha, Star Kiran, and Star Suvarna, has made the decision to leave.

Mani Rangarajan will also assume full responsibility for these tasks for the network in addition to managing technology and operations for the Disney cluster. As a result, he will be reporting to Gajendra Tijare, Head of Broadcast Technology & Operations, and Vivek Dhaimade, Head of Traffic & Presentation.

In addition to her current position as Head of Creative Communications, Minakshi Achan will also be in charge of social listening. She will receive reports from the distillery’s head Venke Sharma.

All of the modifications will take effect immediately.