Update: STAR names Sanjay Gupta as COO

STAR has confirmed that Sanjay Gupta is joining as chief operating officer. This was reported by Campaign India last evening.

In his new role, Gupta will oversee the operations of the STAR channels. All the channel heads will be reporting to him. He will be based out of Mumbai and will report directly to Uday Shankar, CEO, STAR India. 

Gupta comes from Bharti Airtel, where he was responsible for driving marketing, sales and distribution.  Before Bharti, Sanjay played a key marketing role in Hindustan Unilever for various categories such as Oral care and Home care divisions and has handled brands such as Close-up, Pepsodent, Wheel, Vim and Domex. 

Uday Shankar, CEO, Star India, said, “The STAR footprint now extends beyond the core and non-core Hindi markets and even in difficult times such as these the Company has chosen to press on with its agenda for growth. This requires us to further sharpen our focus on senior management responsibility in all our businesses, and Sanjay will be a key resource for us to drive our growth further”.