Ajay Vidyasagar ends his innings with STAR

Vidyasagar was head of STAR’s marketing function when STAR Plus was at its pinnacle

Ajay Vidyasagar, president, content and new media, STAR India, has called it quits. Vidyasagar has worked with STAR India for 14 years.

Vidyasagar was the head of STAR’s marketing function when STAR Plus was at its pinnacle. In fact, it was in his tenure that STAR Plus launched the second season of the country’s most popular game show, Kaun Banega Crorepati, after a gap of four years.

The same year, the STAR Network also launched its second general entertainment channel (GEC), STAR One. Vidyasagar is known to have used several innovative marketing strategies to promote the STAR Network’s channels and their shows.

He joined STAR in 1996 at STAR’s Chennai office. Within nine months, he was called to the Mumbai office to be part of the company’s marketing team. A few months later, Vidyasagar was appointed commercial director, Channel V (the music channel of the network).

In 2000, when STAR acquired Vijay TV, a Tamil GEC, Vidyasagar moved down south as head of the group’s regional business. He was assigned the role of general manager, regional channels, STAR India.

In 2004, Vidyasagar was again called back to Mumbai – this time to head the marketing function of STAR India as executive vice-president. Later, he was promoted as president, content and new media, which was his last designation.

During his tenure with STAR, he also headed the licensing and merchandising functions of the network. As head of STAR India’s new media function, he was responsible for the overall operations of the Internet business of the network.

Vidyasagar started his career with advertising at O&M. He was based in the agency’s Bengaluru branch and spent about 6 years in the agency. The last position held by him at the agency was that of account director.

Vidyasagar’s next destination is still unknown. However, what afaqs! could gather from several sources is that he plans to take a sabbatical for a couple of months.