Reliance MediaWorks assigns Ashok Ganapathy the role of CEO - Exhibition Div.

Reliance MediaWorks, India's fastest growing film and entertainment services company and a member of the Reliance group, has appointed Ashok Ganapathy to serve as the chief executive officer of the company's exhibition division - BIG Cinemas, which is India's largest cinema chain with over 550 screens spread across India, the United States, Malaysia, Nepal and Netherlands.

As CEO, BIG Cinemas, Ashok Ganapathy will head the exhibition chain's global business and will be responsible for the organization's strategy and growth through a customer centric retail approach across cinemas. Ashok would report into Anil Arjun, CEO of Reliance MediaWorks.

Ashok, 45, has over 21 years of experience covering various facets of business and retail operations. He joins from RPG Group's retail arm, where he was responsible for driving the operations of Spencer Retail's 220 store network. Prior to RPG, Ashok spent 19 years with the Unilever Group in India and Vietnam. Ashok is an alumnus from IIT Madras and IIM Ahmedabad.

Commenting on the appointment, Anil Arjun said "BIG Cinemas is a significant business vertical with over 35 million annual footfalls across 143 properties located in 114 cities. We are blending a retail centric approach with cinema to bring an innovative evolution to movie going experience and Ashok's strong experience and deep knowledge in retail and consumer operations of would bring in a unique perspective on delivering strategic solutions to our consumers."

BIG Cinemas has been awarded the "Entertainment Retailer of the Year" honor at the India Retail Forum 2009 and has also been awarded "International Exhibitor of the Year 2008' by CineAsia 2008 at Macau. BIG Cinemas' innovative concept of Cinediner which combines fine dining and movie watching has won the award for Most Admired Innovative Concept of the Year at Images Retail Forum 2010.