Covering the media and entertainment beat for The Economic Times at the turn of the century, more than two decades ago, proved to be quite exciting for this writer. Private broadcasting was just being launched. Emerging from our dreary newspaper offices, the flashing TV screens at Zee or the ‘Quick Gun Murugan’ poster (a fictitious Channel [V] character) at the Star TV reception was a whiff of fresh air. And then Sushma Swaraj, as I&B minister, for the first time recognized film-making as an ‘industry’. This meant the sharp shooters of Bollywood could now officially get access to bank loans.
It was a throwback to those heady days reading Peter Mukerjea’s just released book: Star Struck—Confessions of a TV Executive. It brought back memories like when stodgy ET carried as its Page One Anchor my story that rivals, the Disney sports channel ESPN and Rupert Murdoch’s Star Sports, had brokered a Joint venture (JV) deal for Asia.
Or, when James Murdoch, in an interview in Star’s Mumbai HQ, The Masterpiece, abandoned his official script and waxed eloquent about how the ‘Ambassador’ car was the best thing that had happened to India. Peter Mukerjea’s memoir—from when he left his advertising job in Hong Kong at DDB Needham in July 1993 to board a flight for India to set up Star TV’s first liaison office, to becoming CEO in 1999, and then finally his exit in January 2007 after a messy round of internal politics—captures the flavour of the early days of India’s private broadcasting industry.
JOCKEYING AT THE TOP
The day Peter Mukerjea left for India in 1993, Star TV was sold by its old owner Richard Li to Rupert Murdoch’s conglomerate News Corp. Mukerjea did not know whether he would have a job when he landed in Mumbai. Neither Li nor Murdoch had big plans for India—Star TV was Murdoch’s stepping stone to the Chinese market, something he never succeeded in. What did happen though was, in India, the initial Star TV shows like The Bold And The Beautiful and Baywatch in the early 1990s became hits. It was a new cultural invasion of skin and good production; and the English-speaking middle class lapped it up.
Before long, Murdoch realized China wasn’t working, but India was. So to lend heft to India’s business plans, Star TV poached out Rathikant Basu, Director General of Doordarshan, to head Star. Mukerjea’s start is a bit dull, but the book builds up with some racy plots. One of them is about Basu, who he says could not fit into Star’s culture from his ‘government’ upbringing; and then went on to make a mess in launching Star’s direct-to-home (DTH) services.
Mukerjea, with some glee, dwells at length on the day in March 1999 when the top Star brass from Hong Kong delivered the pink slip to ‘Rodney’ (Rathikat’s Star pet name) Basu at Mumbai’s Hotel Leela. It was also when Peter Mukerjea takes over as Star TV’s CEO from his earlier role as head of ad sales.
MURDOCH STAMP ON KBC
There’s also new and sumptuous material on Star TV’s big breakthrough in 2000—Kaun Banega Crorepati?. As Star limped behind Zee and Sony as a poor No.3 at the turn of the century, the Celedor-produced international show ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire?’ was on offer. Mukerjea describes how it was first conceived by him and his content chief Sameer Nair as ‘Kaun Banega Lakhpati’. Rupert Murdoch, who was sitting in on the discussion was told the Rs 1 lakh prize money translated to something close to $2,000. The media baron’s instincts said it was too small and would not work; and decreed it be upped a hundred times. And so Kaun Banega Crorepati? was born.
Then follow negotiations with Amitabh Bachchan as anchor for the show. A game show in Prime Time TV had never been done. And it was a make or break both for Star TV and for the struggling actor. There are nights of cigarettes, and posturing. Finally, Mukerjea and Nair shake hands on the obscene figure demanded by the Big B, and the show takes off on July, 3 2000. Television, Star TV and Bachchan were never the same again.
Mukerjea also provides some interesting takeaways on how he used ‘informal’ skills to build a strong, loyal leadership team. “Winners have parties, losers hold meetings,” he quotes his Hong Kong Star TV boss Gary Davey. Most of Mukerjea’s team stuck on with him for long; and many remained loyal and supportive even during his recent, more difficult, days. The book has an unhappy ending, but an important lesson. James Murdoch, who was in the driver’s seat in Hong Kong, left for London to fix things in BSkyB, and chose a legal person, Michelle Guthrie, to run Star. In the office machinations that followed, two close colleagues, Peter Mukherjea and Sameer Nair, came to blows; and perhaps to make their relationship unmanageable, Guthrie divided the top job between them, appointing Mukerjea as CEO of Star Group, and Nair as CEO, Star India. Expectedly, both executives exited in early 2007.
And here’s the lesson: however well Indians performed, an organization like News Corp will not respect them in top positions. The underlying racism can be read between the lines. Though Star India was the mother ship in terms of revenue, the driver’s seat was still in Hong Kong; till Uday Shankar, the man who replaced Mukerjea, made it a condition of his appointment. The book is an interesting read for all those in the media business; but also a learning experience for anyone exploring the nasty and short lives of executives at the top.