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When Peter
Mukerjea took over as Star TV India chief from R Basu in
1999 nobody thought he would in anyway steer Star Plus into
numero uno position in less than a year of taking over.
After all, his predecessor had failed to improve the network's
performance in India. And Basu had pedigree behind him:
he had successfully led DD's fightback against the onslaught
of private satellite television channels, had good connections
within government, and many more years of experience under
his belt. Peter was just an ad sales guy who grew with the
organisation and did not really have programming experience,
said the wags. Others said that Mukerjea was a quite an
amenable gent, meaning he would be willing to appease the
'gwalos' (Chinese for white man) while at the same time
keeping his senior Indian executives happy.
But Mukerjea has proved all the naysayers wrong. Today,
Star Plus leaves competitors like Sony Entertainment and
Zee TV yards behind in terms of single channel viewership,
though the other two lead in revenue terms. Star may well
change that if it attains its target of Rs7 billion for
the network by June 2001.
The turnaround came with the success of the Amitabh Bachchan
hosted game show Kaun Banega Crorepati - the Indianised
version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Reams have already
been written about the show's success. Star Plus is not
stopping there: other shows such as "Kyunki Saas Bi Kabhi
Bahu Thi" and "Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki" are racing up the TRP
charts and have inched out offerings from other channels.
While credit for programming on the network goes to programming
head Sameer Nair, a lot of the blame lies at Peter's door
for backing him all the way.
"He has the knack of knowing what will work and what won't,"
says corporate communications head Yash Khanna, who has
been with Star TV for the past seven years.
"Peter is a man manager par excellence," sums up executive
vice-president (ad sales) Sumantra Dutta who has worked
with him for nearly six and a half years and was responsible
for setting up Star TV's Calcutta office when he joined
the company then. "He is an extremely fair boss. And he
does not put you under any pressure; he builds the environment
for you to drive yourself. He keeps motivation within the
company at very high levels."
Agrees Tina Taylor his executive assistant for the past
six years. "He has not changed much. He is very down to
earth and an excellent boss."
That is reflected in the low attrition rate at the company.
Most of the senior people in the company have stayed with
it. Arun Mohan, distribution head, Raj Nayak, Sumantra Dutta,
Sameer Nair and executive vice president Jagdish Kumar.
Reliance Entertainment chairman Amit Khanna
says the past year has seen the emergence of Mukerjea, the
crack television executive. "The year gone by is the coming
of age for Peter Mukerjea," says he. "He needed the success
and he has got it."
On a personal level, Peter is known to be a modest individual,
he often drives around in a Toyota Prado with his driver
Prashant at his side or at the back, while he pops elaichis
(cardamoms) in his mouth every once in a while. He likes
to dress well and can be seen in Armani suits and picks
up his shoes in London. At one point he used to quaff Old
Monk rum but has since progressed to sophisticated Red wines.
Recently, he was named as the first Indian Tennessee Squire
by Brown & Foreman, the makers of Jack Daniels whiskey and
he basked in it.
He loves to work out and has a gym in his house, works out
on his treadmill for 40 minutes daily or plays squash and
cricket. "He plays hard and works hard," says Khanna.
Additionally, he is pretty media savvy and is a darling
of media hacks who have grown to appreciate him even more
as he takes the Star TV network to newer heights of success.
But Mukerjea cannot afford to rest on his laurels. Says
he: "Television is a cyclical business. What goes up must
come down. Zee was up yesterday; today it is down. We have
to be guarded against the same happening to us. We have
to continue to produce quality programming, so that we can
lead the rest of the industry pack."
He has other challenges too: steer Star TV into the stormy
and bumpy DTH arena, and into cable TV and broadband via
Hathway Cable & Datacom in which a 26 per cent stake was
acquired recently. "It is an interesting time for the industry,"
he says. "The challenge is to continue to live up to the
pace and growth we have set."
That is the perfect environment for indiantelevision.com's
TV executive of the Year 2000 to prove his mettle.
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