Abhishek Kumar is appointed group CEO of Balaji Telefims

The production company Balaji Telefilms, owned by Ekta Kapoor, has announced the hiring of Abhishek Kumar as group chief executive officer. Nachiket Pantvaidya, who had joined the company for a second term in April and left this May, is replaced by Kumar. After a brief stint as managing director of Asianet News Media and Entertainment, Pantvaidya returned to Balaji in July of last year. Prior to that, he had been group chief operating officer at Balaji and CEO of its video streaming service ALTBalaji. According to a statement from the company, Kumar will be in charge of the group’s overall expansion and success at Balaji.

Kumar has over 20 years of expertise in company strategy, M&A, operations, and investing in media and technology. He has worked with companies including NDTV, Snapdeal, TV18 Broadcast Ltd., Rainforest Ventures, and more. He joins Balaji from private equity fund Jupiter Capital, where he served as general partner and chief operating officer of the group’s new funds. Before joining Jupiter Capital, Kumar served as managing partner of Rainforest Venture Network, a venture capital network, and served as a partner and advisor to numerous family offices for investments in technology and consumer goods.

“We are pleased to have Abhishek as group CEO, and are confident that he is the right person to lead Balaji to the next stage of growth and value creation. The Indian media sector is undergoing massive change which also creates enormous opportunities for us at Balaji, and Abhishek will lead the efforts with the rest of the team, to seize these opportunities and create value for all our stakeholders,” Shobha Kapoor, managing director, Balaji Telefilms said in a statement.

Numerous daily soaps, as well as ALTBalaji, a video streaming service, and movies including Love Sex Aur Dhokha and Udta Punjab, are produced by Balaji.

“I am of the view that content will continue to remain a key and exciting space irrespective of the platform and value is being attributed to creators of content. Hence, at Balaji, I believe that I can add significant value through my experience in business strategy, and investing in technology and media,” Kumar said in a statement.