At CEO (Boardroom Media) we track over 1,000,000 startups and over 5,000,000 people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top Maharashtra based CEO’ operating in the Media and Entertainment space. If you think a CEO’ is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on [email protected]
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.

Devraj Sanyal
MD & CEO, India & South Asia of Universal Music Group
Devraj Sanyal is the Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer of Universal Music Group & EMI Music, South Asia. Sanyal took over in 2011 & is based in the company headquarters in Mumbai. He is charged with the management and operational running of all Universal Music Group businesses in the region. Sanyal has been part of India’s premier heavy metal band “Brahma since 1994 and so understands all sides of the Music & Entertainment business, both from an artist point of view as well as the business side of things. Sanyal has successfully created a multi-pronged business model for The Universal Music Group by way of having the label sit in the center of his universe, strongly straddled by a host of profitable allied non-traditional businesses like Live, Merchandising, Branded Content, Intellectual Properties, which makes the Universal Music Group businesses in South Asia very differentiated from everyone else. Sanyal is married to Nikita Sanyal & has a 10-year-old daughter Sera. Devraj Sanyal began his career in the early 90’s in the event & sponsorship management business in the early 90’s with his own company “Curtain Raisers. In 1995 he moved to the inception team of Elle Magazine in India to look after advertising & brand. He then moved to the Times of India in 2001 to set up the Group’s Below the Line Businesses and creating the company 360 Degrees. Sanyal spent the next 9 years at Percept Limited as COO & then CEO of PSE ( Percept Sports & Entertainment). Sanyal is credited as the Co-founder of Sunburn & the Delhi Fashion Week. In 2011 he moved to Universal Music Group South Asia r,eporting to Adrian Cheesley, Senior Vice President, Universal Music Group International & continues as its Managing Director & Chief Executive till date. Devraj Sanyal has also been recognized as part of Business Today’s Top 25 CEO’s under 40 and is a recipient of the Udyog Ratna Award in India for 2013. He was recently awarded the FAME leadership award for Media & Entertainment for the year 2014.
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About Universal Music Group: Universal Music Group offers music recording, publishing, and merchandising services worldwide.

Ashish Hemrajani
CEO & Founder of BookMyShow
Ashish Hemrajani is the CEO and Founder at BookMyShow.
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About Bigtree Entertainment, BookMyShow: BookMyShow is an Indian online ticketing service for cinemas, theaters, and sports.

Siddhartha Roy
CEO of Hungama
Siddhartha Roy is the Chief Executive Officer for Hungama.com. Hungama.com is India’s leading digital entertainment company that launched India’s first and largest on-demand digital entertainment storefront, www.hungama.com . The storefront has over 2 and half million pieces of content across genres and languages, in the form of music tracks, movies, music videos & dialogues; mobile content such as ringtones & wallpapers. Hungama Movies has over 5000 Bollywood, Hollywood, Regional Indian Movies and Television Series available in both HD and SD quality, powered by Intel® Insider™. With over 20 million users, the website is accessible from a PC, mobile, tablets, connected TVs and other connected devices, consumers can enjoy all this content via download and streaming. Hungama.com caters to the digital entertainment needs of over 1.5 billion South Asians across the world. It is a part of Hungama Digital Media Entertainment Pvt Ltd. the largest aggregator, developer, publisher and distributor of Bollywood and South-Asian entertainment content in the world. The company has partnerships with over 400 content creators, record labels, studios, broadcasters and game publishers on a worldwide exclusive basis for digital and mobile content. Hungama serves content to consumers in 47 countries across mobile, internet and IPTV services on a Managed Services Platform. His key responsibilities include strengthening the digital marketing initiatives for the company, by providing their expanding client base with quality, innovative content and marketing solutions. Under his guidance, Hungama will set up a one of its kind consumer venture in digital entertainment. He has previously also been responsible for spearheading the Hungama Mobile business. Siddhartha is also the co- founder of BigAdda, India’s largest youth network, a part of the Reliance ADA Group. During his tenure Bigadda gained a vast user base of 2.4 million. Prior to Bigadda.com, he has also worked with MTV Networks and Star TV, India. He has over 10 years of experience in new media communications. Over the last decade, Hungama has created and executed some award winning campaigns in the digital space. The company has created innovative marketing solutions for over 350 brands including Coca Cola, Nokia, MasterCard, ICICI Bank, Axe, Nike, Bacardi and Cadbury’s. Hungama also has under its banner, Bollywooodhungama.com the world’s most respected Bollywood portal. Hungama has emerged as the clear leader in the digital industry in terms of content acquisition within the country.
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About Hungama: Hungama Digital Media Entertainment. is the largest aggregator, developer, publisher and distributor of Bollywood and South-Asian content.

Jyoti Deshpande
Director, Group CEO, Managing Director of Eros STX Global
Mrs Deshpande was re-appointed to the Board of the Company in her former Group Chief Executive and Managing Director with effect from 22nd June 2012. With a degree in Commerce and Economics and an MBA from Mumbai University, Ms Deshpande has over 20 years of experience in media and entertainment across advertising, media consulting, television and film. Ms Deshpande has been a key member of the Eros team since 2001 and has contributed to driving Eros’s growth for over a decade. She was instrumental in the Company’s flotation on AIM in 2006 as well as Eros India’s listing on the Bombay Stock Exchange in 2010.
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About Eros STX Global, Reliance Industries, Viacom18 Digital Ventures: Eros STX Global is a global entertainment company that acquires, co-produces and distributes films, digital content & music.
Aditi Shrivastava
Co-Founder & CEO of Pocket Aces
Aditi Shrivastava is the Co-Founder and CEO of Pocket Aces.
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About Pocket Aces: Pocket Aces is a digital entertainment company focused on mobile video.
Anirudh Singla
Founder & CEO of Pepper Content
Anirudh Singla is the Founder & CEO at Pepper.
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About Pepper Content: Pepper Content is a content-mediation platform that connects writers to organizations that require content.

Ramakrishnan Sankaranarayanan
Co-Founder, CEO & Managing Director of Prime Focus
In his role as managing director, Ramki spearheads the group’s operational planning that reflect the longer-term objectives and priorities established by the board. Ramki has 18 years of IT industry experience. Prior to starting PFT in 2007, he was CEO of Subex Technologies and before that, Global Head of Sales and Marketing for Product R&D Services at Tata Elxsi. Ramki is an engineering graduate from BITS Pilani and an MBA from SP Jain Institute of Management & Research, India.
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About Prime Focus: Prime Focus provides creative and technical services to the film, broadcast, advertising and media industries.

Manav Dhanda
Group CEO of Sri Adhikari Brothers (SAB Group)
Manav has more than 17yrs of experience in the Indian & international Media & Entertainment industry having held key management positions in organizations like Reliance BIG Broadcast, BIG 92.7 FM, ENIL (Radio Mirchi), etc. At Sri Adhikari Brothers, Manav has been instrumental in charting out the Group’s growth strategy across verticals including broadcast, production, publishing and the recently announced film production venture. Under his dynamic leadership, Mastiii, the flagship TV channel of the group has firmly established itself as the leader in the Youth & Music genre space.
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About Sri Adhikari Brothers (SAB Group): Sri Adhikari Brothers Group is a pioneer in the field of Indian Media and has gone through various stages of growth over the last 25 years.

Deepak Gupta
Co-Founder & CEO of Equity Crest
Deepak Gupta has been with Intel since 2000. He rejoined the Intel Capital group in early 2010. Since then he has led Intel investments in Omnesys (M&A ), Telibrahma and Savaari Car Rentals. Prior to this, Deepak was the Revenue & Strategic Controller for Intel Asia- Pacific where he was supporting the revenue management for the Asia Region. Deepak has ~12 years of experience in the investments area including fixed income investments management, venture capital and private equity advisory. Earlier in his career, Deepak was with Intel Capital where he was responsible for investments including Sasken (IPO), Tejas Networks, Future Software (M&A) and Career Launcher(sale to founder). Deepak holds a B.Tech from IIT Bombay and an MBA and MS (Finance) from the University of Maryland.
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About Equity Crest, WEH Ventures: Equity Crest is a consulting agency.
Prashant Panday
Managing Director & CEO of Entertainment Network India Limited (ENIL)
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About Entertainment Network India Limited (ENIL), Radio Mirchi: ENIL is an Indian radio broadcasting operator that operates as a Bennett, Coleman & Company Limited subsidiary.
Sreeraman Thiagarajan
Chief Executive Officer of Aawaz
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About Aawaz, Agrahyah Technologies: Aawaz is a spoken-word audio and podcast network in Indian languages.
Subramanian Iyer
Founder & CEO of The Entertainment Co.
Subramanian Iyer is a co-Founder and the Chief Executive Officer at Believe Entertainment (Entco).
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About The Entertainment Co.: The Entertainment Co. operates as a live music production company.
Anup Dustakar
Founder & CEO of Yorozuya Gaming
I started my career in esports as a professional gamer who owned and esports club which represented India in international esports championship during 2007-2012… I lead operations and business development for Nodwin Gaming as Founding team member and Key Management personnel from 2013-2020… With extensive experience of over 15 years in gaming business, I have setup my company during lockdown.. Looking to grow and expand rapidly during 2022!
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About Faze, Yorozuya Gaming: Group of Gaming & Metaverse companies who create Gaming & Metaverse solutions, large scale events and esports ips, publishing, nfts and more
Pankaj Jaysinh
CEO – India Operations of UFO Moviez
Pankaj Jaysinh is a CEO – India Operations at UFO Moviez. He is responsible for Sales & Distribution on pan India basis for the UFO Network. Pankaj is a former Distribution Head at Shree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision. Mr. Jaysinh received an MBA in Marketing and Finance at Case Western Reserve University.
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About UFO Moviez: UFO Moviez is a digital cinema distribution network that provides digital cinema solution for movie producers, distributors, and exhibitors.
Rajesh Mishra
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) – Indian Operations of UFO Moviez
Rajesh Mishra is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) – Indian Operations at UFO Moviesz. He leads UFO’s India operations and his core strengths are Business Development, Brand Development, Marketing, and Operations. Mr. Mishra has more than 25 years of experience in media, films, television and the print industry. Rajesh is a former General Manager at Zee Network. He holds a bachelor’s degree in commerce from the University of Bombay and is a certified Chartered Accountant.
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About UFO Moviez: UFO Moviez is a digital cinema distribution network that provides digital cinema solution for movie producers, distributors, and exhibitors.
Vishnu Patel
CEO – Special Projects of UFO Moviez
Vishnu Patel is the Group CEO of Special Projects at UFO Moviez.
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About UFO Moviez: UFO Moviez is a digital cinema distribution network that provides digital cinema solution for movie producers, distributors, and exhibitors.
Vishnu Patel
CEO – Special Projects of UFO Moviez
Vishnu Patel is the Group CEO of Special Projects at UFO Moviez.
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About UFO Moviez: UFO Moviez is a digital cinema distribution network that provides digital cinema solution for movie producers, distributors, and exhibitors.

Hitesh Gossain
Chief Executive Officer of ONSPON
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About ONSPON, Startup India: If you have an event to organize. This is the first platform you list it ! Get sponsors, stall buyers & awesome services from one dashboard

Aakash Khatri
Founder and CEO of Worlzen
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About Worlzen: An intelligent networking portal designed to help people plan meetups with anyone, anywhere,

Subrata Dhara
CEO, Founder and Director of Media24by7
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About : Media24by7 is a leading online magazine providing breaking news, updates about entertainment, business, science, technology, etc.
Ashutosh Mishra
CEO and Managing Director of Vision Corporation
Ashutosh Mishra is the CEO and Managing Director of Vision Corporation.
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About Vision Corporation: Vision Corporation, creates and distributes theatrical and non-theatrical filmed entertainment.
Ramesh Menon
Chief Executive Officer of Next Mediaworks
Ramesh Menon is the Chief Executive Officer of Next Mediaworks.
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About Next Mediaworks: Next Mediaworks engages in radio broadcasting in India through its subsidiary.
Ramesh Menon
Chief Executive Officer of Next Mediaworks
Ramesh Menon is the Chief Executive Officer of Next Mediaworks.
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About Next Mediaworks: Next Mediaworks engages in radio broadcasting in India through its subsidiary.