Endemol India names Ashok Vidyasagar as senior vice president

Vidyasagar joins the Endemol India team to lead operations of the entire South India Business, including shows like Bigg Boss.

Endemol India, the Indian arm of an international television production and distribution company Endemol, has appointed Ashok Vidyasagar as senior vice president. Vidyasagar will be responsible for focusing on scripted business opportunities in addition to exploiting the non-scripted catalog of Endemol in the four southern languages of Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam. Based out of Chennai, Ashok will report into Abhishek Rege, chief operating officer - Television, Endemol India.

Prior to joining Endemol India, Vidyasagar was instrumental in setting up Big Synergy Media's south operations as business director - south. In his previous jobs, he has headed Enfatico (Dell's Global Communications Company), as country lead for three years and as senior vice-president and general manager, Bates and finally as group business director and general manager, Mudra Communications.

Having more than 24 years' experience in brand management, Vidyasagar has steered several global and local brands across FMCG, technology, industrial manufacturing. He has also worked for four-and-a-half years in the media and entertainment industry. "We have always been focused on building regional franchises of our global shows especially in the south. In the past too we have seen great success with Deal or No Deal in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam and now, most recently, Bigg Boss Kannada has been a huge hit. With Ashok leading the southern market, we hope to further expand and build more such ventures," says Rege.

"I would like to leverage my brand experience and work on content strategies for brands and channels in the South which is an exciting set of four markets. With the increasing percentage of ad spends of national brands in the South, the possibilities are huge for branded engagement and content. Brands and channels are ready to make high investments for content, resulting in better ROI for them and therein lies the business opportunity for content," says Vidyasagar.