Raj TV gets Vidyadhar Khatavkar as Group COO

Khatavkar's mandate will be to drive the growth of Raj TV Group in South India as well as internationally.

Raj TV Network has brought in Vidyadhar Khatavkar for the newly created role of group chief operating officer. He will report to Rajendran, managing director, Raj TV.

In his new capacity, Khatavkar will drive the growth of the Raj TV Group in South India as well as internationally. Speaking to afaqs!, he says, "My mandate here will be to drive and spearhead the group's growth into the television, new media and alternate media space."

Rajendran elaborates, "Khatavkar will initially push Raj TV Network's growth beyond Tamil Nadu; that is, in Karnataka, Tamil Andhra Pradesh and Kerala. And then, eventually, we will expand our footprint internationally in an attempt to tap the South Indian diaspora worldwide."

Prior to this appointment, Khatavkar was with Cellcast Interactive India as senior vice-president - media and strategy. He also served as the national sales head for B4U from 2006 to 2008.

Khatavkar has been associated with the Zee Network for 13 years. He was part of the core team that launched the Zee Alpha channels. He was also the national sales head for all the regional channels at Zee from 2000-2002. Till 2005, he was business head, Zee Gujarati; and his last assignment with Zee was as senior vice-president - sales, Zee Sports.