How Punit Goenka is cleaning up Zee’s muck

The broadcaster flew into a perfect storm that was its founder Subhash Chandra’s doing. While he ended up losing control over it, the new owners are letting his son undo the mess.

Harveen Ahluwalia

Mumbai

T Surendar

Mumbai

02 November 2020

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There is no other way to put it. Punit Goenka is a man on a mission. A mission to make amends.

The managing director and chief executive officer at Zee Entertainment Enterprises is changing the way things are done at one of India’s largest media companies, things that have shaken Zee to its very core over the past two years, and brought his family to the brink of losing control over the media empire it built over 25 years.

Zee, founded by entrepreneur-turned-politician Subhash Chandra and largely controlled by his family, has always been among the largest television broadcasters in the country. In fact, in the Indian media and entertainment ecosystem, it is the one home-grown, pan-India competitor of scale that has held up against strong overseas operators like Sony Pictures Networks India and Star India, which is now part of The Walt Disney Company. For more than two decades, Zee Entertainment has stood for culturally relevant programming, good media ethics and

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