Jan 2021 – Dec 2024 · 3 yrs 11 mos

• Chief Commercial Officer - Viacom18 (Executive Vice President)
• Part of the leadership team of Viacom18, reporting to the CEO of Viacom18 Network
• Heading the entire Commercial function for the Network Pan India, which includes
• TV channels (GEC/ Sports/ Youth/ Movie/ Music/ Kids such as Colors, MTV, Sports18, Colors Cineplex, MTV Beats , Sonic, Nick and regional channels in Tamil, Kannada, Marathi, Bengali, Gujarati, and Oriya language)
• Jio Cinema OTT (erstwhile Voot) and Voot kids
• Viacom18 Motion Pictures
• Live events
• Branded Content.
• Cost centres : Content, Key Artists (incl Influencers), Marketing (ATL & BTL), General & Technology Spends
• Negotiations for optimizing spends, IPR management, Deal structuring, providing Budget estimates and Agreement finalization for all different type of deals (Commissioning shows/Show and Movie Acquisitions/Licensing/Format/Talent/Music etc)
• Managing relationships with key personnel of Major Production Companies/ A+ talent of Bollywood/ Influencers/Licensors/ Vendors.

Nov 2019 – Jan 2021 · 1 yr 2 mos

• Part of the leadership team of Netflix India managing commissioning of original content.
• Lead the Production Finance team for all Original Series, Film, Non-fiction and Documentaries (such as Sacred Games, Bard of Blood, Guilty, Chopsticks etc.). It also included assisting International teams for the projects (such as the movie Extraction etc.) which are shot in India. Have worked on 17 limited Series, 14 Films and more than 20 Development projects.
• Formulating budgeting strategies for India region with the cross-functional leaders of Creative, Production, Planning & Legal teams.
• At a show level, the team was involved in negotiating and finalizing the budgets of Series & Films in alignment with Production and Creative team. After budget lock, monitoring the actual spends as against the budgets. The motto of PF team was to ensure that our spends are seen on-screen.
• Weekly reporting of Production spends to Netflix Los Angeles team and Monthly discussion with global finance Directors led by Netflix CFO
• Representative of the Production Finance India team at the Quarterly Business Review (QBR) meetings in LA led by Netflix CEO
• Presentations to the Senior Creative, Production Management and Production Finance leaders at offsites (Japan, Korea, LA)
• Mentoring and knowledge sharing with the new team members of APAC, Europe and Latin America teams managing original content.

Mar 2018 – Nov 2019 · 1 yr 8 mos

• Creating & Implementing Production finance goals of International Originals Production Finance team for India region.
• Focusing on all aspects of Production Finance.

Apr 2015 – Mar 2018 · 2 yrs 11 mos

• Lead the Commercial function for Hotstar which includes negotiations for optimizing spends, monitoring spends, cash flow projections, ensuring appropriate amortization, deal and payment structuring, budget planning & allocation and ensuring contract closure for Content deals (commissioning of original series/ show (Fiction/ non-fiction) namely On Air with AIB, Tanhaiyaan, Badtamez Dil, M Bole Toh, etc. Exclusive content for sports such as live VR experience for Kabaddi World Cup, Ultimate Panga etc.
• Also, Content (Movie/ Series) & Music Licensing deals from Indian (Shemaroo, Yashraj, T-Series, NFDC, Ultra etc) & International studios (FOX, HBO, Awesomeness TV etc)
• The role required extensive co-ordination with other cross-functions such as Legal, Finance, Tax, Product, Revenue strategy & Planning teams.
• POC for all critical International partners/distributors.

May 2012 – Mar 2015 · 2 yrs 10 mos

• Lead one of the verticals of Commercial team responsible for execution of all Legal Agreements (for Original series, Key talents, Writers, License for Formats etc. for Star Network including Star Plus), Deal structuring, Vendor payouts, Taxation, Music licensing, liaising with audit team.
• Also, actively involved in providing inputs on developing/enhancing accounting software (SAP), Rights management Software & Document Management software.
• Lead the commercial negotiations for Star Sports Studio project (12 studios). It involved procurement of technical equipments (CAPEX) from multiple vendors (most of which were across the globe) and also ensuring that all the equipments are imported in India within the timeframe of the project.

Jul 2009 – May 2012 · 2 yrs 10 mos

• As part of Corporate Audit team (reporting to News Corporation, USA) at Star have performed various reviews of key business processes such as Programming, Ad sales, Distribution etc. for Star Network (as well as regional channels namely Asianet (Kerala), Suvarna (Karnataka), Star Vijay (Tamil Nadu), Star Jalsha (West Bengal) and provided suggestions on key risks and control sufficiency in addition to advising on business improvements, effective inventory/ rights utilization and monetization.

Apr 2005 – Jun 2009 · 4 yrs 2 mos

• Job profile included functioning as an Audit in charge/ Audit manager for conducting Statutory Audit/ Foreign Reporting Packages in compliance with GAAP and Tax Audit.
• Key clients: L'oreal, Bharti Airtel, CPS Color, RMC Readymix, Saint-Gobain Gyproc etc.