GECs
Big B relaunches ABCL as AB Corp
MUMBAI: It was a befittingly glitzy affair in the city yesterday as Indian cinema’s biggest brand Amitabh Bachchan marked his 61st birthday by relaunching ABCL as AB Corp.
The new corporate identity of the Big B of Bollywood was unveiled with the launch of the Rajkumar Santoshi-directed Ranveer, which has Bachchan playing the pivotal role with son Abhishek and Sanjay Dutt costarring. Ranveer is being jointly produced by AB Corp and DMS Films, producers of Khakee, which has Bachchan and Ajay Devgan playing the lead roles. AB Corp plans to produce three to four films in the first phase, all as joint ventures with other corporate groups.
AB Corp is not just about a name change. It is also an attempt by Bachchan to make a clean break with the troubled past that constituted the Brand Bachchan firm’s earlier avatar ABCL, which went into bankruptcy. It was referred to the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) and declared sick in 1999. At one time ABCL had 55 court cases against it. Bachchan has cleared Rs 900 million in debts due primarily to Prasar Bharti, financial institutions, banks and some private parties.
While making his inaugural address, Bachchan said he had three people in particular to thank for helping him through the tough times – politician and regular Page 3 socialite Amar Singh (first), Reliance Industries’ Anil Ambani and the Sahara Group’s Subrato Roy. To add to the glitz of the affair, Singh presented Bachchan with a Bentley as his birthday gift. While expressing his gratitude to the three, Bachchan was at pains to stress that there was no funding that had come from either of them as far as clearing his debt was concerned.
And keeping with the professionally managed persona that AB Corp is projecting, Leo Entertainment – the specialised arm of advertising agency Leo Burnett – will be promoting its films.
Head of Leo Entertainment Sanjay Bhutiani has been quoted in the Hindu Businessline as saying: “We will be developing brand strategies and advertising for all the forthcoming films produced by AB Corp.”
The latest on AB Corp, meanwhile is that it is in advanced talks with with AV Birla group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla’s Applause Entertainment for an alliance in feature film production.
According to a report in the Business Standard, the deal, which is expected to be inked in the next few days, will have the brand equity that Bachchan and son Abhishek command valued as equity.
Saturday evening was not the time or place to get any answers to this and any other such questions though (like when Bachchan would start work on the grand Sahara TV project?). It was your regular Bollywood “mahurat” party. On a much grander scale of course as befitted the occasion. And here indiantelevision.com went thinking there would be a media briefing of some sort. Filmi bashes are not about such things is one lesson we took away from the Big B’s big night.
GECs
ZEEL overhauls sales structure to chase growth across TV and digital platforms
New structure sharpens digital push as viewing habits fragment fast
MUMBAI: Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. is reshuffling its sales playbook as it looks to keep pace with a fast-changing media landscape, where audiences are scattered, screens are multiplying and advertisers are following the data.
According to media reports, the rejig is anchored in the company’s push to build a more integrated, data-led monetisation engine, one that can straddle both traditional television and fast-growing digital platforms with equal ease.
At the heart of the move is a reworked sales architecture designed to deliver cross-platform solutions. With connected TV gaining ground and digital consumption surging, ZEEL is aligning its teams to move quicker, think broader and sell smarter.
The restructuring is being led by chief operating officer, advertisement revenue, Sandeep Mehrotra, at a time when the company says it is seeing tremendous growth. The idea is simple: match the right talent to the right opportunity in a market that is anything but static.
As part of the overhaul, several long-serving executives have been elevated to chief sales officer roles across regions and content clusters. Sanjoy Chatterjee will head the east market, while Gunjarav Nayak takes charge of the west along with high-margin verticals such as hmg, brand works, intellectual properties and digital sales. Rajnish Gupta will oversee bengaluru and chennai markets alongside the kannada and tamil clusters.
In other key moves, Divjyot Dhanda will lead hyderabad and kochi markets and manage zee tv, zee keralam and the telugu cluster. Roshan Vasu Kotian will supervise a diverse portfolio including Zee Marathi, &tv, Zee Punjabi, Zee Anmol, Big Magic and Zee Biskope.
The company is also strengthening its bench, appointing national sales heads across retail, regional clusters, digital and brand solutions. Ankur Kapila’s appointment to lead digital sales signals a sharper push into a segment that continues to outpace traditional formats.
Behind the scenes, dedicated strategy and operations roles have been carved out for both linear and digital businesses. Nitin Shetty, Rajkiran Shrivastav and Priya Nambiar will take on key responsibilities to ensure the new structure runs with precision.
The broader aim is clear. ZEEL wants a bigger slice of advertising budgets that are steadily drifting towards digital and connected TV ecosystems. By integrating its offerings, the company hopes to deepen client relationships while unlocking new revenue streams.
The new structure takes effect immediately, with Mehrotra continuing to report to chief executive officer Punit Goenka and steer the company’s advertising revenue strategy. Senior executive Laxmi Shetty will support the transition, with her revised role expected to be announced soon.
In a market where content is everywhere but attention is scarce, ZEEL’s latest move is less about rearranging the org chart and more about staying in the game.
