He has the courage of a daredevil, says Sunil Lulla, group CEO of Real Global Broadcasting, when asked to comment on Kunal Dasgupta, who quit as the CEO of Multi Screen Media (MSM) Private Ltd after a 14-year-long stint. Lulla should know since he worked with Dasgupta for three years running Sony, MSM’s flagship Hindi general entertainment channel. “He takes big risks and backs them,” he adds.
Anuj Gandhi, former head of Sony’s channel distribution company SET-Discovery (now MSM-Discovery that runs The One Alliance) agrees: “He’s a man with a strategic vision.” Yet, Kunal Dasgupta’s exit from MSM (formerly Sony Entertainment Television), the broadcasting joint venture between Sony Pictures Television International and a bunch of Indian promoters, was sudden and in the midst of a spat with Big TV, an on-ground sponsor for the Indian Premier League (IPL), and the BCCI.
Other than the reason of controversies over Sony’s sponsorship deal for IPL’s T-20 matches that it has the telecast rights to, the buzz is that Dasgupta has been nailed for Sony’s abysmal performance. The channel’s lost viewership and its gross rating points are languishing between 70 and 80, way lower than Star Plus, Colors and Zee at between 250 and 300.
But his admirers say that Sony’s current ratings should not cloud Dasgupta’s worthy contribution to television entertainment. The IIM-Calcutta alumnus, who worked with VIP and Mattel Toys before switching to entertainment, changed the complexion of the small-screen business through three major properties: Sports, films and events.
For a start, Sony created events, packaged and aired them — the high-profile Lata Mangeshkar concert, many years ago, was the beginning of a new trend. Secondly, he exploited India’s passion for cricket to the hilt. He paid a premium to bag the World Cup cricket rights and later backed the unproven IPL. “We pioneered the concept of cricket as entertainment. Rivals chaffed when we introduced Mandira Bedi to cricket but everybody followed,” says Dasgupta, who, incidentally, is an avid golfer.
Lastly, he turned the satellite TV rights for films into a big deal. Prior to Sony, channels paid a pittance for these rights. It shook the film and television industries when Sony paid Rs 1 crore for Sholay — the blockbuster that fetched barely Rs 2 lakh for similar rights earlier. “Satellite rights became a huge opportunity for filmmakers, especially for the weaker films,” says Dasgupta. “I wanted the deals to be win-win for both — the filmmaker and the channel,” he adds.
Acknowledged as an astute deal-maker, his ability to swing major deals — both in sports and films — has often evoked censure. And the former Sony CEO is aware of the disapproval. “You will always hear whispers wherever there is a deal. I wouldn’t have lasted in Sony this long if it was an issue,” he says.
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More recently, his deal to distribute Viacom18’s Hindi channel Colors through The One Alliance — the MSM-Discovery distribution company — has generated immense media buzz. For Colors, which is expected to go “pay” in April, Dasgupta apparently promised a minimum guarantee of Rs 100 crore. He does not confirm the figure, but says that the deal was approved by the MSM board. Sceptics argue that if MSM can generate so much money, why is Sony trailing?
Dasgupta’s former colleagues have the answer: The CEO should have moved to the bigger role of a strategist rather than “worry about the 9 pm to 10.30 pm slot that still determines the success of a channel.” In hindsight, Dasgupta agrees: “That was a weakness. I should have stayed away from the day-to-day running of the channel.”
For now, Dasgupta is looking ahead at his new role as a content creator for 3G players — once 3G auctions take place, mobile-phone based entertainment is likely to take off in a big way.