MAM
United Spirits appoints Abanti Sankaranarayanan as business head
MUMBAI: Spirits company United Spirits Limited (USL), a subsidiary of Diageo, has roped in Abanti Sankaranarayanan as business head for luxury and corporate relations, India.
With this move, Sankaranarayanan joins the executive committee of USL. With over 20 years in the consumer industry, she has been managing director of Diageo India since July 2012, leading Diageo’s business mandate for international spirits in India. Under her leadership, Diageo’s brand portfolio in India delivered strong double-digit growth and high market share gains coupled with robust equity results.
USL MD & CEO Anand Kripalu said, “We are delighted to have a leader of Abanti’s talent and global caliber to lead our luxury portfolio and drive our corporate relations efforts in India. Her extensive leadership experience and expertise will add strong momentum to the growth of USL’s business in India.”
A new luxury unit is being set up in USL for the premium brands of the portfolio with the objective of maintaining Diageo’s premium brand leadership. Creating a center of luxury excellence will provide focus behind the fastest growing segment of the Indian alcobev market. The luxury business will encompass Diageo’s iconic brands such as Johnnie Walker, Ciroc and the Single Malts.
In addition, Sankaranarayanan will lead the new corporate relations function that has been set up to drive USL towards strong leadership and execution on public policy, regulatory, tax and trade affairs, alcohol policy, corporate reputation & brand, and sustainability & responsibility. In this role, Sankaranarayanan will build key stakeholder relationships with regulators, government, industry bodies, NGO partners and relevant members of civil society.
Sankaranarayanan said, “I am delighted to take up this new position at USL as we continue the journey to make USL the most trusted and respected consumer goods company in India.”
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Abhay Duggal joins JioStar as director of Hindi GEC ad sales
The streaming giant brings in a seasoned revenue hand as the battle for Hindi television advertising heats up
MUMBAI: Abhay Duggal has a new desk, and JioStar has a new weapon. The media and entertainment veteran has joined JioStar as director of entertainment ad sales for Hindi general entertainment channels, adding 17 years of hard-won revenue experience to one of India’s most powerful broadcasting operations.
Duggal is no stranger to big portfolios or bruising markets. Before joining JioStar, he spent a brief stint at Republic World as deputy general manager and north regional head for ad sales. Before that, he put in three years at Enterr10 Television, where he ran the north region for Dangal TV and Dangal 2, two of India’s leading free-to-air Hindi channels. The north alone accounted for more than 50 per cent of total channel revenue on his watch, a number that tends to get attention in any sales meeting.
His longest stint was at Zee Entertainment Enterprises, where he spent over six years rising to associate director of sales. There he commanded the Hindi movies cluster across seven channels, owned more than half of north India’s revenue across flagship properties including Zee TV and &TV, and closed marquee sponsorships across the Indian Premier League, Zee Rishtey Awards and Dance India Dance. He also handled monetisation for the English movies and entertainment cluster and the global news channel WION, a portfolio that would stretch most sales teams twice his size.
Earlier in his career Duggal closed what was then a Rs 3 crore single deal at Reliance Broadcast Network, one of the largest in Indian radio at the time, before that he helped launch and monetise JAINHITS, India’s first HITS-based cable and satellite platform.
His edge, by his own account, lies in marrying data and instinct: translating audience trends, inventory signals and client demands into long-term partnerships built on cost-per-rating-point discipline rather than short-term deal chasing. In a media landscape being reshaped by streaming, fragmented attention and AI-driven advertising, that kind of rigour is increasingly rare and increasingly valuable.
JioStar, which blends the scale of Reliance’s Jio platform with the content firepower of Star, is doubling down on its advertising business at precisely the moment the Hindi GEC market is getting more competitive. Bringing in someone who has spent nearly two decades doing exactly this, across some of India’s most watched channels, is a pointed statement of intent. Duggal has spent his career turning audiences into revenue. JioStar is clearly betting he can do it again, and bigger.
