Vishal Gondal quits Disney UTV Digital

Gondal's last working day will be June 30. After that, Sameer Ganapathy will take over the business function for the digital arm of Disney UTV.

Vishal Gondal, founder and CEO of Indiagames and managing director, Digital of Disney UTV, will move on from the company; his last working day will be June 30. Sameer Ganapathy, who was earlier handling the distribution for the media networks business of Disney UTV, will now take on the business function for the digital arm of the company.

Gondal founded Indiagames in 1999, which in 2004 was acquired by a Chinese mobile gaming company, TOM Online. In 2007, Indian company UTV Software Communication acquired a majority stake in Indiagames and in 2011, UTV Indiagames was acquired by Disney.

In August 2012, The Walt Disney Company India restructured its digital assets under a new division, DisneyUTV Digital, with Gondal as its managing director, to drive better growth in games, video and audio services for mobile, online and interactive TV.

Gondal now plans to launch another entrepreneurial venture.

"Indiagames had small beginnings but a big dream. I cannot help but look back with a tremendous sense of fulfilment and pride upon the long, eventful and exciting journey. I am really proud of what the team has accomplished. Consequently, I've decided to move on to pursue my dreams and passion of being an entrepreneur," says Gondal.

The Digital team of Disney UTV combines all mobile, video, audio, broadband, ITV, games and virtual world initiatives. It has a combined audience reach of more than 300 million in India. All digital content across all brands, namely Disney, Marvel, UTV, Indiagames and Bindass, including original content for web and mobile and games, will be developed and managed by this team.

"Vishal has been a great founder and CEO for Indiagames. As we consolidate the digital, mobile and web play for Disney UTV in India, we plan to build on our creative prowess and transform the digital business to be a direct to consumer, yet working closely with all our partners, telecom operators, OEM's and others. This is similar to our approach in our other verticals of movies, broadcasting and consumer products," comments Ronnie Screwvala, MD, Disney UTV.