Viacom18 on Tuesday said Sagnik Ghosh has been appointed as the Business Head, COLORS Bangla. Sagnik will be taking over from Rahul Chakravarti who cemented the channel’s position as the third ranked GEC in the highly competitive Bengali market.

Sagnik will be reporting to Rajesh Iyer, Head, Regional Entertainment (Bangla, Odia, Tamil and Gujarati Clusters), Viacom18.

A cross-industry veteran with over two decades of experience spanning media and entertainment, advertising, and banking and finance industries, Sagnik, in his previous assignments, had led Star Jalsha and Star Bharat to leadership positions in their respective markets and genres.

“Regional is an important growth driver for Viacom18 and West Bengal is an important market for us. I’d like to thank Rahul for his contribution and wish him the very best in his future endeavours,” Iyer said in a statement.

According to Iyer, Sagnik brings three important aspects to his role — his “knowledge of the Bengali entertainment industry, his understanding of consumer preferences and his marketing expertise, which cumulatively will dial up both the brand and the business.”

On his new role Sagnik said the Bengali broadcast entertainment market provides considerable opportunities and is known for its creative prowess for producing content that is often taken to other markets.

“COLORS Bangla has a rich legacy and now is time to grow further and challenge the market leaders. Together, with the dedicated and talented team, I look forward to propel COLORS Bangla to greater heights,” he added.

Prior to joining Viacom 18, Sagnik has worked with Star India as EVP and Business Head, Star Jalsha and Jalsha Movies (Bengal Cluster). In the Hindi-speaking market, Sagnik had led the brand revamp of Star Plus, and re-launched Life OK as Star Bharat and led it to the numero uno position. Prior to joining the media and entertainment industry, Sagnik worked with brands like Axis Bank and HSBC.

Viacom18 Media Pvt. Ltd. is one of India’s fastest growing entertainment networks and a house of brands that offer multi-platform, multi-generational and multicultural brand experiences. The company is a joint venture of Network18 (51%) and ViacomCBS (49%).