Reliance-Disney merger: Meet the entire leadership of new Star India

New Delhi: Reliance Industries, Viacom18 Media, and The Walt Disney Company officially announced their merger on November 14, 2024, unveiling their new joint venture worth Rs 70,352 crore. 

Nita Ambani will serve as Chairperson of the JV, with Uday Shankar stepping in as Vice-Chairperson to provide strategic guidance.

The venture will be led by three CEOs across key divisions: Kevin Vaz will oversee the entertainment sector across all platforms, Kiran Mani will manage the combined digital operations, and Sanjog Gupta will head the sports division.

Ambuj Kashyap will work directly with Uday Shankar and partner with CEOs on strategic and business initiatives. Earlier, he was the Co-Founder and Chief Business Officer, IHX, a healthcare data platform.

Rasesh Upadhyay will work directly with Vaz to drive entertainment business strategy and operations.

Gaurav Gokhale will work directly with Kiran to drive Digital business strategy and operations.

Alok Jain has been named Head of Cluster, Entertainment (Colors, Digital Hindi, Niche, Movies and Studio). Jain was the President of General Entertainment at Viacom18.

Sumanta Bose is named the Head of Cluster, Entertainment (Star Plus and Bharat, Bengali, Marathi and Gujarati). Bose was the Business Head for the Hindi-speaking market and Content Head for Hotstar Hindi. 

Krishnan Kutty has become the Head of Cluster, Entertainment (South). Before this, his designation was Business and Content Head for the entire South & Marathi regional portfolio.

Ajit Varghese has been given the role of Head of Revenue, Entertainment & International. He was the Head of Network Ad Sales, Disney Star.

Piyush Goyal is the Head of TV Distribution. Before this, Goyal served as Chief Operating Officer at Indiacast Media. 

Bharat Ram has been appointed Head of Product at Viacom18, taking on the role of Chief Product Officer and Ad Tech Platform Lead. He previously worked at Flipkart, Instagram, and Prime Video.

Akash Saxena has been given the role of Head of Technology. He was the Chief Technical & Product Officer at Viacom18. 

Shoury Bharadwaj is the Head of Engineering. He had recently joined Viacom18 as the Head of Engineering—Viewer Experience. Before that, he was with Flipkart in the Senior Director of Engineering role at Flipkart. 

Vijay Seshadri has been appointed as the Chief Architect. He has been the Chief Technical Advisor at Viacom18 since July 2024. Sheshadri was an Engineering Fellow at Swiggy.

Ishan Chatterjee has been appointed Head of Business for Sports Revenue, SMB, and Creator. Chatterjee joined Viacom18 as Chief Business Officer in October 2024, bringing experience from his previous role at YouTube.

Hursh Shrivastava is given the role of Head of Partnerships. Before this, he was the EVP & Head - Strategy & Rights Acquisitions, Sports Business, JioCinema.

Sushant Sreeram, who joined Viaocm18 from Amazon Prime Video, has become the Head of Marketing of the joint venture. 

Rishi Gaind has become the Head of Human Resources. He was the Head of Human Resources at Disney Star. 

George Cherian is the Head of Corporate Communications & PR. He held the same role at Disney Star before this.  

Rajat Nigam is the transition head of IT and media operations. 

Sandeep Jain is named the Head of Commercial. Jain was the EVP of Commercials at Star India. 

Mukesh Mundhra is the Transition Finance Head. Mani Rangarajan will work on the financial integration of both organisations as a part of the transition. Kshripra Jatana is the Transition Legal Head.