Star turn

Book review of Star Struck: Confessions of a TV Executive

On July 27, 1993, Peter Mukerjea returned his house keys to his landlord in Hong Kong. After three years as director on the Star TV account with its ad agency, DDB Needham, he was moving to (then) Bombay as head of ad sales for Star’s India business. On the cab ride to office he found a copy of the day’s South China Morning Post. In a page full of local news was a small item headlined “News Corp Buys Star TV.” “Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation announced that it had acquired a controlling stake of 63.6 per cent of HutchVision Ltd, the company that supplied all of Star TV’s programmes….This was news to me. Instant panic! It couldn’t be true. Not possible. … Would I still have a job when I arrived at the Star TV office?... 

What would Rupert Murdoch do with Star TV?”

This anecdote, related in great detail in Star Struck, is one of the most repeated Mr Mukerjea stories in the media world — related by the man himself to many of us. Star Struck is a chest full of such stories. However, it does not touch upon his recent incarceration in jail. 

Mr Mukerjea is an accused in the conspiracy to murder Sheena Bora, who was allegedly killed by his ex-wife Indrani in 2012. Mr Mukerjea was arrested in 2015 and released on bail in March 2020 awaiting trial. He has repeatedly denied any involvement in the killing or the conspiracy. Star Struck stays firmly with Mukerjea’s professional life.  

It is about his discovery of India, broadcasting, and all things that went with it. And his stint in the biggest strategic media investment into India. It gives you a peek into what went on behind the scenes at News Corporation and Star albeit from Mr Mukerjea’s perspective.

He says as much in the preface. “This book is a memoir. No more than that. It is a personal recollection of my experiences at the coalface in the formative years of the satellite television industry in India and a super-fast changing media landscape. This is not intended to open a can of worms, nor is it a set of kiss and tell stories.”

When Mr Murdoch blew up more than $870 million buying Star TV from Richard Li (in tranches over 1993 and 1995) there was consternation among analysts in New York. In February 1993 Star TV reached 11.36 million households or about 45 million people in 38 countries. However, it didn’t dominate any market and had no success whatsoever in the largest one — China. The second largest, India, was a media dark market with less than 200 million viewers, one state broadcaster and about Rs 500 crore in revenue when Star TV, BBC and CNN came in 1991.

In 2019, India was the world’s second largest TV market (by volumes) reaching 836 million people and making over  Rs 79,000 crore in revenues. And two companies deserve credit for leading this change — Subhash Chandra’s Zee TV and Rupert Murdoch’s Star. Now, almost 30 years after it came to India, Star India with a top line of over $2 billion is among the country’s largest media firms. It was valued at a reported $13 billion when its parent Fox was bought by Disney in 2019.

Star Struck: Confessions of a TV Executive 

Author: Peter Mukerjea

Publisher: Westland Business

Pages: 278; Price: Rs 699

Mr Mukerjea was CEO Star TV for eight (1999-2007) of the most critical years — the ones that took Star from pathetic underdog to dominant market leader. The book goes over several turning points in Star’s history, among them the launch of Star news and the shift to Hindi with Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) which exploded on Indian TV screens. Mr Mukerjea’s brief to his marketing team is now part of corporate legend; “Think of it as an Indo-Pak one day international (cricket) final; that is the kind of impact I want.” The story of how Mr Mukerjea and (then) programming head Sameer Nair convinced Amitabh Bachchan to play host is a fun read. But Mr Mukerjea’s contribution to the Indian media industry and to Star goes beyond that.

After Doon school Mr Mukerjea spent a large part of his academic and working years in England. That explained not just his lispy British accent but also the curiosity and enthusiasm with which he approached India. Unlike managers trained in the protected (till then) Indian market Mr Mukerjea was open to, imbibed and implemented some of the better elements of News Corp’s culture. In the process he created a positive context for the Indian broadcasting market, laying the foundation that made Star the company it is today. Of all the things Mr Mukerjea did two were critical.

One, his insistence on hiring the best possible people at market rate or more. Remember this was the nineties, the economy was not exactly bursting with jobs. Almost every manager Mr Mukerjea hired has gone on to head large global firms. Two, he brought a discipline to the ad sales function that has remained Star’s hallmark and the reason it commanded good rates even as a niche English broadcaster.

From 2000 to 2007  I met Mr Mukerjea several times for various stories around Star and the media industry. I remember asking him questions around his lack of knowledge on content (answered honestly), on why Star didn’t get into the regional markets (evasive) and so on. Many of these questions have been tackled honestly enough in Star Struck.

The book’s biggest limitation (for me) is that it does not have a structure that falls in place; it is more a bunch of chatty reminiscences. And like all reminiscences, it goes all over the place digressing very often from whatever is being discussed. But if you ignore the stream-of-consciousness kind of writing, it offers an engaging, leisurely look into the birth of the private television industry in India from a man who was at the centre of the action.

Read it just for the fun of knowing what Mr Mukerjea was really thinking during the making of Star India.