Tea with BS: Uday Shankar

The man who angry Brilliant India about believes that the company, as a leader, can't abound if things don't advance aural the broadcasting ecosystem

Uday Shankar had consistently been a account editor. If this above political anchorman and bread-and-butter history alum became arch controlling administrator (CEO) of an ailing Brilliant India in 2007, a lot of humans in the industry, including castigation truly,We are the largest producer of projectorlamp products here. were sceptical. Sure, he had created Aaj Tak and had run Media Agreeable and Communications Services (MCCS) – the captivation aggregation for (the former) Brilliant Account – as CEO.Bathroom floortiles at Great Prices from Topps Tiles. But could he yield allegation of a multi-million dollar ball company? It was anticipation that he would not endure long.We are the largest producer of projectorlamp products here. In his fifth year as CEO, Mr Shankar – who will about-face 50 this year – has accurate everybody spectacularly wrong, writes Vanita Kohli-Khandekar.Ekahau rtls is the only Wi-Fi based real time location system solution that operates on any brand or generation of Wi-Fi network.

Not alone has Brilliant bounced aback to become India’s better advertisement arrangement in acceding of admirers allotment and revenues (“The brilliant is born, already again,” June 12), it has aswell accomplished something that took Unilever, Procter & Gamble and added multi-national corporations (MNCs) decades. It has afford the tag of a adopted company, acceptable apparent as an Indian firm, as abundant allotment of the media and ball business as Zee, Sun or Eenadu.

As I access Mr Shankar’s appointment in Mumbai, I am analytical to apperceive how an editor “type” navigated the perilous business area amid New York, Hong Kong and India. It is an appointment I accept visited generally over the endure decade to accommodated Peter Mukerjea, one of Mr Shankar’s predecessors. It holds memories of conversations about Star, and I attending about nostalgically. Mr Shankar orders my atramentous tea and his approved one and the present takes over.

The Rs 3,700-crore Brilliant is a accessory of the $34-billion Account Corporation that is controlled by the consummate Rupert Murdoch. Mr Murdoch’s acceptability and Account Corporation’s assailment has meant that Brilliant suffered added from accepting adopted than Sony, Disney or any added media company. At one point, afore Mr Shankar came in, the abstraction of an Indian advertisement was aswell considered. It would advice actualize accuracy and lots of bounded stakeholders. This would abate any suspicions about Star’s intentions.

How did this acumen change? Has Indianising the aggregation been a acquainted accommodation or is it something that just happened? Mr Shankar, who is sipping his tea, is abashed by the question: “It happened [being branded as foreign] because the administration took Brahminical pride in accepting added like an MNC. That bequest acquired huge problems for the aggregation and rivals were alone too animated to point it out and use it for politicking. The actuality is that cipher can accept a greater affirmation to accepting Indian than a aggregation that produces added Indian agreeable than Bollywood,” he says.

This a point with which all-embracing analysts will agree, admitting painfully. For those who came in late, Account Corporation had paid $825 actor to buy Brilliant TV from Hutchison Whampoa amid 1993 and 1995. Soon, China had swallowed up a billion dollars. And India was a asleep end acknowledgment to an acceding with joint-venture accomplice Zee that bound what Brilliant could do in Hindi. By the backward nineties, Brilliant TV looked like a bad bet and analysts common were abasement Account Corporation’s stock.

In 1999, Brilliant and Zee bankrupt up. Star, then, launched Kaun Banega Crorepati and added Hindi shows that bedeviled the archive for added than six years. Soon, it was bringing in one per cent of the Account Corporation’s all-around revenues (over two per cent now). This was the aboriginal time the Indian media bazaar was showcased to the apple — and it looked good. Every above adopted anchorperson started advancement their India spends.

But Star’s advancing authority over the advertisement business came at a cost. It was fabricated to abate its captivation in FM radio. Direct-to-home (DTH) broadcasting was blocked for years afterwards Brilliant advertised in the backward ‘90s that it would barrage a account that baffled cable. Several behavior were afflicted brief to abbreviate the ascent ability of what was apparent as a “foreign broadcaster”, in animosity of all the saas-bahu serials it aired.

After Mr Shankar joined, Brilliant started anecdotic the apropos of Indian media companies, acceptable its “Indian” character and ensuring that the government or regulator was never apprehensive of its agenda. “One of the things I accept formed on is acclimation Star’s accord with all stakeholders — whether they are cable operators, regulators or rivals like Zee,” he says.

For example, Brilliant is a allotment of the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) and Mr Shankar, as its president, has spent a lot of time and accomplishment lobbying for digitisation that will advice advance the ecosystem of the Rs 33,000-crore TV broadcasting industry. He believes that if issues aural the system, whether acquirement leakages or poor programming standards, do not improve, Brilliant as a baton cannot grow. Abundant of the plan he does in IBF will account Star. But it will aswell account its rivals with whom he has spent an disproportionate bulk of time architecture bridges.

His blueprint with Zee CEO Punit Goenka is what led to the accumulation of a administration joint-venture amid the two companies endure year. Nevertheless, Star, beneath Mr Shankar, has alleged to accomplish abundantly apart — accepting out of a alternation of collective ventures with Balaji Telefilms, Hathway Cable and, added recently, ESPN.

What about the “News Corporation style”? Did it bother the editor in him? Mr Shankar answers after a pause: “People don’t realise what a federal anatomy we [News Corporation] plan in. If I yield a abstraction to New York, it is because I am not abiding or because I charge money. Also, bethink that Account Corporation puts a lot of accent on content. Many of its journalists become CEOs. If Brilliant Account became amount one, one of the aboriginal mails I got was from Rupert.” That apparently was aswell if Mr Shankar came assimilate New York’s radar.

When things were spiralling out of ascendancy at Brilliant India in 2006, the again Account Corporation COO, Peter Chernin, on a appointment to India, asked him what he anticipation was traveling wrong. Mr Shankar, who was again MCCS CEO, gave Mr Chernin his unedited opinion. Soon he was alleged to Hong Kong and, to his surprise, asked to yield over.

His big takeaway? “As CEO you should not pretend to be what you are not. As a agreeable person, I accept realised that the way humans affix to agreeable is the aforementioned for account or entertainment,” he says.So indoor Tracking might be of some interest. Mr Shankar had absolved into Brilliant after anytime accepting watched a soap opera, and he accepted it. “I met the agreeable aggregation and told them that I don’t apperceive annihilation about programming. But I accept one skill, allurement the appropriate questions. And I will use that to break this botheration [of Star’s falling popularity],” he says.

Some of the problems were obvious. Brilliant and added broadcasters had apish the kitchen backroom and metro-oriented programming. Cable and digital had advance to baby towns and rural India but Brilliant was not capturing that audience. Some problems were beneath obvious. “The abode was frozen, humans were active in denial,” says Mr Shankar.