MUMBAI: In a surprise move, Star India has appointed Amit Chopra as the network sales head to replace Kevin Vaz, who was helming the position since November 2009.

Chopra?s mandate will be to leverage the skills of the sales team at Star India to fuel aggressive growth in the business.

The realignment will see Kevin Vaz move to lead the English channels? cluster of Star India. Kevin will also continue to steer Star Jalsha and Jalsha Movies as their General Manager and Business Head.

Interestingly, Star had appointed Chopra in December last year to steer the group?s sports strategy. The India operations of ESPN Star Sports (ESS) have come under Star post its complete takeover by News Corp.

Before joining Star, Chopra was the CEO of Hindustan Media Ventures Limited (HMVL). An Engineer from IIT Kharagpur and an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad, Chopra has spent 12 years in FMCG in Hindustan Unilever in a variety of marketing and sales assignments.

It also needs to be noted that the English channels cluster of Star was headed by Saurabh Yagnik, who quit the company in November last year to join Multi Screen Media?s (MSM) English movie channel Pix.

Vaz, who joined Star in 1996 as an ad sales executive, rose through the ranks to become the network ad sales head of the company. The soft spoken ad sales executive has been with the company for almost 17 years now.

MUMBAI: Star Network?s Bengali general entertainment channel Star Jalsha will be launching in the UK on Sky channel 808 on 22 November.

The channel?s president, GM Kevin Vaz said, "Jalsha is synonymous with entertainment and celebration in Bengali and it is indeed a matter of great celebration for the Star Network to launch Star Jalsha in the UK - making it the first South Asian regional channel to be retailed in the Sky Entertainment pack."

The channel was launched in September 2008 and re-branded in June 2012. With the launch of Star Jalsha in the UK, the Star Network has expanded its regional offering to the UK?s Bengali community from both India and Bangladesh.

Star senior VP UK, Europe Yeshpal Sharma said, "I share Kevin?s enthusiasm and am pleased to be part of history making Star Jalsha the first regional South Asian channel to be available on the Sky Entertainment Pack. We are very excited to bring Star Jalsha to our UK viewers and as always, our commitment to quality broadcasting will be our utmost priority."

Star Jalsha offers 24-hour premium Bengali content and is a leading television entertainment choice for the Bengali speaking audience. Its programming includes dramas, reality, cultural, religious, comedy and cookery shows.