Happy Birthday Uday Shankar: The force behind Indian media's reinvention

Every industry has its defining figures, like people whose careers don't just track the evolution of a business but actively shape it. In Indian media, that name is Uday Shankar. Born on September 16, 1961, Shankar celebrates his birthday today, and with it, a career that has spanned newsrooms, boardrooms, and now, the commanding heights of the country's streaming and broadcast landscape as Vice-Chairman of JioStar.

Shankar's early years were spent in Patna, Bihar, where he completed his schooling and undergraduate education. He then moved to Delhi to pursue an M.A. in History at Jawaharlal Nehru University, later completing an M.Phil there in 1989. He has often credited JNU with opening his eyes to a different way of seeing the world, an outlook that would go on to inform his instincts as a journalist and, eventually, a media strategist. He began his career as a political correspondent with The Times of India in Patna, reporting on the politics of post-liberalisation India, before working as a news producer with Zee and later with SAB Television, Home TV, Sahara Samay, and Star News.

Shankar was a founding member of the team that launched Aaj Tak, India's first 24-hour Hindi news channel, where he played a central role in creating the breaking-news format that would go on to define Indian television news for decades. It was an early sign of his instinct for spotting where an industry was headed before the rest of it caught up.

As CEO of Star India, Shankar led one of the industry's most successful turnarounds, expanding the network's reach to over 700 million viewers through regional content, socially relevant programming, and transformative sports coverage. One of his boldest and most consequential calls came in acquiring the global broadcasting and digital rights for the Indian Premier League for ₹16,347 crore: a decision that was questioned at the time but went on to redefine how cricket was packaged, consumed, and monetised in India, turning the IPL into the country's most valuable sports property.

Under his leadership, Star launched Hotstar, marking a defining leap into India's OTT space. Following Disney's acquisition of 21st Century Fox in 2019, Shankar became President of The Walt Disney Company Asia Pacific and Chairman of Star and Disney India. In April 2020, he led the launch of Disney+ Hotstar in India, which crossed 300 million monthly active users at launch to become the country's largest streaming service, before overseeing its rollout in Indonesia and Disney+ launches across other Asia Pacific markets.

In October 2020, Shankar stepped away from Disney to chart an entrepreneurial path, co-founding Bodhi Tree Systems with James Murdoch in 2021, backed by the Qatar Investment Authority. Through Bodhi Tree, he led a strategic investment into Reliance's Viacom18 in 2022, helping scale JioCinema into one of India's leading digital destinations. The journey came full circle in February 2024, when Reliance Industries and The Walt Disney Company signed a binding agreement to merge Viacom18 and Star India into an $8.5-billion joint venture. Nita Ambani was named Chairperson of the combined entity, JioStar, and Uday Shankar became Vice-Chairman.

In his current role, he oversees strategy across JioStar's television, streaming, sports, and broadcast verticals, and shapes the vision for JioHotstar, which crossed 200 million paying subscribers by early 2025, ranking among the world's top three streaming services. In May 2025, he said JioStar would invest $10 billion in content over three years. Bodhi Tree has also backed ALLEN Career Institute, one of India's largest test-preparation companies, where Shankar now serves as Chairman.

Beyond the boardroom, Shankar has been a defining voice in shaping India's media policy and industry discourse. He served as President of the Indian Broadcasting Foundation from 2010-12 and 2014-16, and as President of FICCI, the only media industry figure in recent times to hold that post. He sits on the boards of companies including Kotak Mahindra Bank and GE Shipping, and was recently appointed to the Board of Directors of the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum. He received the Forbes India Leadership Award for Best CEO (MNC) in 2015 and was ranked 15th on India Today's 2019 list of the 50 Most Powerful People in India, the only media executive to feature. He is also the only recipient of the Impact Person of the Decade award from Impact and the e4m group.

As JioStar continues to scale, industry watchers see Shankar's current chapter as perhaps his most consequential yet: one where his instinct for talent, his understanding of the Indian consumer, and his appetite for big bets converge at the helm of the country's largest media enterprise. On his birthday, the Indian media industry has much to celebrate about the man who has, time and again, rewritten its rules. Many happy returns, Uday Shankar.