MAM
Saha takes centre stage as JioStar signs industry heavyweight for SVP role
MUMBAI: If career graphs had box-office openings, Krishnendu Saha’s newest move would be a first-day, first-show sell-out, as the seasoned media strategist steps into his new role as senior vice president at JioStar. The appointment marks a significant talent win for the company, bringing on board one of the industry’s most analytically grounded and regionally fluent leaders.
Saha joins JioStar after a standout two-year stint as business head of Colours Bangla Cluster, Jalsha Movies, Star Kiran, and head of Marketing, Strategy and Insights for Star Jalsha at Disney Star (Nov 2023–Nov 2025). In this role, he steered multi-genre, multi-market portfolios, shaping content strategy, platform positioning and regional growth across West Bengal and Odisha.
Before Disney Star, Saha spent 1 year and 7 months at Viacom18 as senior director, marketing and content/business strategy for Colours Bangla and Colours Bangla Cinema, a phase defined by sharp regional consumer decoding, content optimisation, and brand strengthening across the Bangla cluster.
His earlier milestone-rich journey includes over two years at Sun TV Network, where he led marketing, research & strategy for Sun Bangla, the company’s first foray beyond the South. He also played a central role in establishing the network’s footprint in Maharashtra with the successful launch of Sun Marathi.
Saha’s understanding of regional dynamics runs deep. Between 2019 and 2020, as assistant vice president of research & strategy for Zee’s regional HSM & premium cluster, he helped craft the business plan for Zee Punjabi, the network’s maiden GEC in the region, and Zee Ganga Biskope, a Bhojpuri movie channel. His work spanned consumer insights, content calibration, and strategic planning across brands like Zee Marathi, Zee Yuva, Zee Talkies, Zee Bangla, Zee Bangla Cinema, Zee Sarthak and the premium English cluster.
His longest-running association was with Star India, where he spent nearly five years driving strategy for Star Jalsha, Jalsha Movies, and later Star Plus, contributing to long-term growth roadmaps, programming direction, communication strategy and consumer insights. From analysing show health and audience behaviour to shaping full-channel strategies, his analytical depth became his signature.
Saha’s professional foundation, however, predates media beginning as a senior software engineer in Samsung R&D’s graphics team before pivoting into management through an MBA from FMS Delhi. His academic background includes an M.Tech and B.Tech from IIT Bombay, where he graduated with top-tier SPI scores (9.8 and 10.0) and held leadership roles in NSS and departmental bodies.
Across Disney Star, Viacom18, Sun Network, Zee, and Star, one thread runs consistently through his career, a reputation for data-backed decision-making, regional mastery, and brand-building.
At JioStar, Saha steps into a pivotal leadership position at a time when the network is sharpening its regional strategy and scaling its entertainment footprint. With his track record of launching channels, shaping clusters, decoding diverse markets, and driving business transformation, the appointment signals a clear intent: JioStar is doubling down on expertise to power its next phase of growth.
For an industry where talent is often the true differentiator, this is a move worth watching and perhaps a sign that the next big plot twist in regional broadcasting is just getting written.
MUMBAI: In India’s fast-moving payments race, Visa has just swiped in a new leader. The company has named Suresh Sethi as its India country head, marking a key leadership shift as it sharpens its focus on digital payments growth in the market. Sethi steps into the role following his recent exit from Protean eGov Technologies, where he served as chief executive officer. He succeeds Sandeep Ghosh, who has moved on after more than four years at Visa to pursue an external opportunity.
The appointment comes at a time when Visa is doubling down on its expansion strategy across India and the wider region, deepening partnerships and accelerating adoption in an increasingly competitive digital payments ecosystem.
Sethi brings with him a broad, cross-market perspective shaped by decades of experience across corporate banking, retail financial services, mobile money and large-scale government technology initiatives. He began his career at Citigroup, where he spent 14 years working across India, Africa, South America and the United States, focusing on transaction banking services within the corporate bank.
His appointment signals a blend of institutional experience and market familiarity qualities that could prove critical as Visa navigates a landscape where fintech innovation, regulatory evolution and consumer adoption are all accelerating at once.
As digital payments in India continue to scale rapidly, the leadership change underscores a simple reality, in a market where every tap, scan and swipe counts, who leads the charge can matter just as much as the technology itself.
