VIVEK KRISHNANI NAMED MANAGING DIRECTOR OF SONY PICTURES INDIA

VIVEK KRISHNANI NAMED MANAGING DIRECTOR OF SONY PICTURES INDIA

Mumbai, October 20, 2015… Vivek Krishnani has been appointed Managing Director of Sony Pictures India (also known as SPE Films India). His appointment will be effective November 1, 2015.

Under his leadership Sony Pictures India will handle all theatrical distribution for Sony Pictures Entertainment’s films. Sony Pictures Entertainment produces, acquires, and distributes its films under its various film labels: Columbia Pictures, TriStar Pictures, Screen Gems, Sony Pictures Animation, Sony Pictures Classics, Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions and Sony Pictures International Productions.

Vivek was most recently Senior Vice President – Revenue and Marketing at MSM Motion Pictures. MSM Motion Pictures is the film production arm of Multi Screen Media Pvt. Ltd which is a part of Sony Pictures Entertainment Television Network. Sony Pictures Television’s media networks are available in 178 countries on 81 unique channels in 29 different languages. Sony’s network of television and digital channels has over 1.3 billion subscribers worldwide. Sony’s television assets in India have over 650M subscribers worldwide across its portfolio of channels. Sony is also the exclusive linear TV broadcaster of Indian Premier League (“IPL”). Sony’s MSM Motion Pictures co-produced the Hindi film Piku earlier in the year to major box office success.

Previous to his tenure at MSM Motion Pictures, Mr. Krishnani spent six years at 21^st Century Fox, Fox Star Studios heading distribution, marketing and syndication where he worked on Hollywood titles such as Avatar, Slumdog Millionaire, the Ice Age franchise, Life of Pi, the X-Men franchise and Indian films including My Name is Khan, Bol Bachchan, Raaz 3, Force, Jolly LLB, Jannat 2 among others.

Commenting upon his new role Vivek said, “I have had a great experience being part of the Sony family and I am now looking forward to a new role with Sony Pictures India. With a legacy of over 80 years since the first Columbia Pictures office opened here, Sony Pictures has over the decades continued to entertain Indian and global audiences. We are committed to further strengthening our distribution network in India and overseas and also looking to scale up our local acquisitions as well. We have a great line-up ahead and I’m excited to hit the ground running.”

Brett D. Hogg, Senior Vice President, International Distribution - Asia commented on the new appointment saying, “I’m very pleased to welcome Vivek to Sony Pictures India. He’s a media veteran with very valuable experience in the unique and dynamic Indian market, in both Hollywood and Local Language productions. Under his leadership, we look forward to taking Sony Pictures India to even greater heights.”

Prior to Fox Star Studios, Vivek was the Executive Director Marketing Asia Pacific at Turner Entertainment Networks based out of Hong Kong, responsible for Marketing and Interactive strategy for the entertainment channels for Turner Entertainment (Cartoon Network, POGO, Boomerang and TCM). He joined Turner from Radio City where he was part of the start-up team and before that he was with Star Plus responsible for strategic planning and marketing. He began his career with Lowe Lintas (previously Ammirati Puris Lintas). He holds a Masters degree in Management Studies, Marketing from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies.

About Sony Pictures

Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) is a subsidiary of Sony Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Sony Corporation.  SPE's global operations encompass motion picture production, acquisition and distribution; television production, acquisition and distribution; television networks; digital content creation and distribution; operation of studio facilities; and development of new entertainment products, services and technologies.  For additional information, go to http://www.sonypictures.com.