STAR Majha's Nilesh Thakkar joins Mahua as senior vice-president, national

As part of his new mandate, Thakkar will head a cluster of channels, which the Mahua Group soon plans to launch.

Mahua Group has roped in Nilesh Thakkar as senior vice-president - national.

With this move, Thakkar ends his six-year stint with MCCS (media content and communication services) where he was channel head, Star Majha.

As part of his new mandate, Thakkar will head a cluster of channels at the Mahua Group, which the network plans to soon launch.

Speaking to afaqs!, Nikhil Seth, president - sales, Mahua Group, says, "Mahua is in the midst of launching a few channels and Thakkar will be the national head for one of those clusters."

Thakkar's focus at Mahua will be on innovation, activation and generating revenues from local events. He will look at tapping the regional, print and retail advertisers.

Says Thakkar, "Working with STAR Majha and MCCS was extremely fruitful. I got the opportunity to work with people like Ashok Venkatramani and Uday Shankar, and had multiple roles to play on all the three channels."

Thakkar joined MCCS as regional manager in 2005.

In 2007, he was given the major role of launching STAR Majha, and was promoted to assistant vice-president -national sales.

Later in 2009, he was also given additional charge for leading the events team at STAR News and STAR Ananda. And, in 2010, he became the all-India head for generating new businesses at STAR News and STAR Ananda.

Prior to joining MCCS, Thakkar was with Zee TV as assistant vice-president - Zee Marathi, Zee Gujarati and Zee Bangla.