News Broadcasting
Entertainment One, Sahar still together: production house clarifies
MUMBAI: Entertainment One, Manmohan Shetty’s film production house, has issued a notice yesterday stating that all is well between them and their associates Sahara India Mass Communication.
The production house unwittingly found itself at the centre of an imbroglio, when Sahara withdrew its involvement from the Ketan Mehta/Bobby Bedi-produced film Mangal Pandey – The Rising, last fortnight.
The reason: Entertainment One was financing the film and Sahara has a stake in the company.
In an attempt break the ice, the production house has issued a company release stating, “Sahara India is very much an integral part of the The Rising and ‘not mere guests at the mahurat of the film’ as misquoted by some section of the media.”
The problem between Sahara and the producers began when the lead actress Aishwarya Rai, who is incidentally a director with Sahara, was ousted from the film by Bedi.
Immediately, Sahara decided to sever ties with the film and issued a press statement saying, “We shall never continue any association where the concerned people shall not care for the respect of our Pariwar and Pariwar people… We should have been intimated and consulted before Rai was so unceremoniously thrown out of the project.”
Dragging Entertainment One into the issue, media reports had quoted Bedi as saying, “Entertainment One is still financing the film and that is what matters to us.”
However, the company release issued by the production house clarifies, “Probably due to lack of communication, some issues have been misinterpreted regarding the role of Sahara in the film. We would like to bring to light that we had entered a memorandum of understanding with Sahara to financially assist a few film projects including The Rising.”
The release says, “It is unfortunate that due to a certain issues related to Ms Rai, Sahara has had to take a stand to pull out of the project, and we respect the decision.”
The release concludes saying, “Entertainment One and Sahara Pariwar would like to have a longstanding relationship in time to come.”
News Broadcasting
Senior media executive Madhu Soman exits Zee Media
Former Reuters and Bloomberg leader says he leaves with “no regrets” after brief stint at WION and Zee Business
NOIDA: Madhu Soman, a veteran of global newsrooms and media sales floors, has stepped away from Zee Media Corporation after a short stint steering business strategy for WION and Zee Business.
In a reflective LinkedIn note marking his departure, Soman said his time within the network’s corridors was always likely to be brief. “Some chapters close faster than expected,” he wrote, signalling the end of a nearly two-year spell in which he oversaw both editorial partnerships and commercial strategy.
Soman joined Zee Media in 2022 after more than a decade abroad with Reuters and Bloomberg, returning to India to take on the role of chief business officer for WION and Zee Business. His mandate was ambitious: bridge the newsroom and the revenue desk while expanding digital and broadcast reach.
During the stint, Zee Business reached break-even for the first time since its launch in 2005, while WION refreshed programming and strengthened its digital footprint across platforms such as YouTube and Facebook.
But Soman suggested the cultural fit proved uneasy. Describing himself as a “cultural misfit”, he hinted at deeper tensions between editorial instincts shaped in global newsrooms and the realities of India’s television news ecosystem.
Before joining Zee, Soman spent more than seven years at Bloomberg in Hong Kong as head of broadcast sales for Asia-Pacific, expanding the company’s news syndication business across several markets. Earlier, he held senior editorial roles at Reuters, overseeing online strategy in India and managing Reuters Video Services from London.
His career began in television and wire reporting, including a stint with ANI during the 1999 Kargil conflict, before moving into digital publishing as India’s internet media landscape took shape.
Now, after nearly three decades in broadcast and digital media, Soman is leaving Delhi NCR and returning to his hometown, Trivandrum.
Exhausted, he admits. But unbowed. And with one quiet line that sums up the journey: he didn’t sell his soul — because some things, after all, are not for sale.
