Beginning with one channel in 1992 to 31 channels today and counting, Subhash Chandra‘s Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited has indeed come a long way.

Indiantelevision.com spoke to industry vetarans like Kunal Dasgupta, Shashi Sinha and and some of the former Zee employees to trace back Chandra‘s dynamism and the company‘s history.

Former MSM CEO Kunal Dasgupta

On Subhash Chandra and Zee?s early life

Through the early stages and the difficult years, it was Subhash Chandra‘s vision and dynamism that helped the company get through and create a brand.

The most important thing to note about Zee is that they survived the initial pangs and have become a permanent part of the Indian media landscape. Despite the presence of multinational media companies, they survived the onslaught and have become successful.

On competitive spirit of Chandra:

Chandra was always a strong competitor. There was never any question that Star, Zee and Sony were here to stay. I think that the perception that Zee was up and then down and came back again was only a media creation. In reality these three companies have always been successful.

On media business being promoter-led:

A media company has to be promoter-led and not just be professionally run. There has to be an entrepreneurial spirit. You have to take risks. That is how a media company will thrive. If there is no risk taking appetite, you will stagnate.

Lodestar UM CEO Shashi Sinha

I think Subhash Chandra has done a great job. To have a vision to think through and to have a perspective that would fuel Zee‘s growth.

At that time only Doordarshan was there and they hardly used to sell; you had to stand in queues for slots. So, to create something like this was so magical. As global giants Star and Viacom are there, you need that entrepreneurial mindset to survive and grow. Chandra looked at languages, distribution and all the pieces of the media business. It is not easy to do everything in the beginning when the market is small and there isn?t enough money. But it was a good team and Ashok Kurian helped him at that point of time along with others.

Zee as a bouquet is very good. Chandra has set up a strong distribution network and he has got regional channels. One
channel going up and another going down is a minute detail, but he has consolidated the network very well . You can?t find a
bigger bouquet and they have been ahead of time. Before any other DTH operator came in, Dish TV was launched. They were the first ones to launch regional and set up a channel distribution outfit.

Chandra‘s son Punit Goenka is doing well too and he has a very good understanding of content.

For an Indian group to be so dominant and do so well, it?s a great achievement.

Essel Production head Nitin Keni

Zee?s beginning as a private broadcaster

Zee had a highly creative atmosphere in those early days and, being a new company, was less corporate. It was like ‘Do it first, Understand later‘.

Subhash Chandra was not just involved as chairman but also in every single thing because that was the beginning. He was practically there to give directions and guided us in major things.

That was the time when the whole country was getting liberalised. So I think that was also on his mind: that the Indian economy was opening up and Zee should start looking at the aspirations of the young people and the new society. We wanted Zee to be modern, young and aspirational.

Zee‘s movie production efforts

I was also part of the launch of Zee Cinema in 1995. There were lots of legal issues because there were many claimants to the movie library. So we had to be careful and bought rights directly from film producers.

Since there was a joint venture arrangement between Star and Zee, both of us were acquiring movies and they were pooled together. Zee already had a library of 2000 movies and Star also had acquired certain movies.

After I did my MBA from IIM, I joined NFDC because there were no private broadcasters at that point of time. I was very keen on cinema, so I started to make movies on my own. Zee also funded one of the films, Gadar. Though the movie was a box office hit, Zee never got the kind of returns it should have. Only the satellite rights gave Zee the true value.

In India, movie making is still not as organised as in other countries. Zee was not in film distribution, so in 2005 I tried facilitating that. I came as a consultant since I was running my own company at that time and we tried getting into distribution through a joint venture with Rajshri.

Why Zee did not make much progress in movie production? That is because Zee was focusing more on the television business (it‘s a 30 channel network today); the film business took a backseat. Zee floated a motion pictures arm in between but it did not work since it required a different kind of culture and organisation as compared to television.

On Subhash Chandra the visionary

Chandra dares to dream and he actually converts them into reality. I think he also created a platform for the next generation of media leaders to take the company global.

Chandra has given freedom to his CEOs; he curbs their wings also depending upon how they perform. He won‘t allow them to mess up with the company that he has built over the years.

Although he has passed on the baton to his son, he is very much guiding him and us. He continues to be passionate about media despite venturing into other growth areas like infrastructure.

Independent media consultant Kantaa Advanii

My six years at Zee have been a period of learning. Being a pioneer in the Hindi TV entertainment business in the country, we made our own rules and broke them. I was never faced with a situation where I was told not to try something new. So in that way, it was an extremely encouraging time that I spent at Zee.

I interacted more with Subhash Chandra when i was made head of sales for the entire network. Contrary to ‘rumours‘ at that time of him being an interfering boss, I found that he is a very hands on person and likes to keep track of what is going on in his company. He believed in letting people do their things and was present as a guiding force.

Another commendable thing about Chandra is the fact that he has a very shrewd idea of what might work and what might not. Despite this instinct, he never backed out of a calculated risk. He is a visionary and a part of this is his ability to take chances and face the consequences. In case of a failure, he took it in his stride.