Television
Sony Pictures Networks India appoints Harsh Deep Chhabra as head of strategy and new business
The veteran media and advertising executive joins from Godrej Consumer Products, where he ran global media
MUMBAI: Sony Pictures Networks India has a new strategist. The broadcaster has appointed Harsh Deep Chhabra as head of strategy and new business, a newly created role that will sit directly under Gaurav Banerjee, managing director and chief executive of SPNI.
Chhabra comes with over two decades of experience straddling media, advertising and digital, and arrives at SPNI from Godrej Consumer Products, where he served as global media head, driving integrated media strategies across markets. Before that, he was senior vice-president at Mindshare, the GroupM agency, where he led the Unilever relationship for South Asia. His career also spans stints at Zee Entertainment, Turner International, Radio City and GroupM, giving him an unusually broad view of the media value chain from both the buying and selling sides.
In his new role, Chhabra will be responsible for shaping SPNI’s long-term strategic direction, identifying new growth opportunities and partnering with business units to push topline growth and sharpen cost efficiency. He will also lead the evaluation and incubation of new business lines aligned with the network’s growth agenda.
Banerjee said Chhabra’s ability to translate insights into decisive, high-impact strategies would be instrumental as SPNI accelerates its growth plans. Chhabra, for his part, called the moment “pivotal” for the industry and said he was looking forward to building future-ready capabilities alongside the leadership team.
SPNI, formally known as Culver Max Entertainment, operates 28 channels, the Sony LIV streaming platform and Studio NEXT, and reaches over 700 million viewers in India.
A network that spans television, streaming and original content now has a dedicated strategist hunting for what comes next. The question is how much runway it has to find it.
