MUMBAI: In a major management reshuffle, KWAN Entertainment, India’s largest entertainment marketplace connecting investors, brands, and artists, has announced the appointment of its founding partners Indranil Das Blah and Vijay Subramaniam as its Co-CEOs. In the new role, the veteran duo will manage the day-to-day operations and the agency business at KWAN. The move is aimed at leveraging their combined extensive experience in the fields of entertainment, media, sports, and music to drive the company to the next level of its growth.
The latest development will also see KWAN’s Founder Anirban Das Blah take on a more evolved strategic role, in which he will guide the firm’s long-term vision, strategy, and growth as its promoter. The move will additionally give Anirban, a prominent name in the entertainment and media landscape, the opportunity to diversify his professional interests to other business ventures such as Mojostar (cofounded with Jiggy George) as an investor, promoter, and mentor.
Other members of the KWAN senior leadership team will continue in their current roles. Co-founder Madhu Mantena will continue to drive the evolution of KWAN into a diversified media and entertainment company, along with Anirban. Founding partner Dhruv Chitgopekar continues to spearhead its brand and consumer incubation initiatives.
Indranil Das Blah, Founding Partner and Co-CEO - KWAN Entertainment
Having started out as an Assistant Manager (Sales & Marketing) at sports marketing firm TSM in 2002, Indranil has since carved a name for himself in the fields of brand sales, celebrity endorsements, and sports marketing. He joined tennis ace Mahesh Bhupathi’s Globosport as the Head of its Delhi office in 2004 and worked closely with him on all sports-related initiatives for Globosport. By 2008, he had risen to the rank of Head of Sales and Sports at Globosport and, by 2015, had played an instrumental role in some of India’s biggest sporting events. This included getting sponsorships for 3WTA and 2 ATP tennis events, as well as initiatives aimed at the grassroots level, such as the Apollo Tyres Mission.
Indranil co-founded KWAN Entertainment in 2009. Under his leadership, the sports division at KWAN today manages many leading sports franchises in India, including Ranbir Kapoor-owned Mumbai City FC and Sanjay Dutt’s cricket franchise Leo Lions (part of the Masters’ Champions League in the UAE). The team manages multiple athletes and has been instrumental in securing over 200 sponsorship and endorsement deals in the last five years.
Vijay Subramaniam, Founding Partner and Co-CEO – KWAN Entertainment
A mechanical engineer by education, Vijay came to realise that his real passion was entertainment. As a result, he joined Globosport as an intern and swiftly rose up the ranks to head the company’s business in South India. During his tenure at Globosport, Vijay established the company’s LIVE touring business and spearheaded sales across brands and corporates in the southern region. He also successfully managed several big-ticket events, including the WTA Sunfeast Open in 2008, and the countrywide Royal Stag Saif Ali Khan Rock Tour.
As a co-founder and partner at KWAN, Vijay has been responsible for running various business verticals such as brand sales, live entertainment, television, music, and content. His in-depth knowledge of brands, live events, and films, coupled with an analytical business approach, have played a critical role in identifying several key growth and expansion opportunities for KWAN, and established Vijay as one of the experts in the entertainment industry. He also manages some of the country’s biggest and most talented Bollywood stars such as Deepika Padukone, Pritam, Shraddha Kapoor etc.
Speaking on the management rejig, Anirban Das Blah, Founder – KWAN Entertainment, said, “Having helmed KWAN for almost a decade now, I feel the time is right for me to hand over the reins of its day-to-day operations to Indranil and Vijay. They’re both extremely talented individuals who’ve been associated with KWAN from day one, and have proved their business management acumen time and again by driving exponential growth for their respective verticals. With them spearheading KWAN’s business operations as Co-CEOs, I have no doubt that the firm will continue to grow at a rapid pace, evolving and expanding in sync with the rapidly-changing entertainment and media ecosystem of the country.”
Indranil Das Blah added, “This is a big moment for me, personally and professionally. The KWAN family is extremely close to my heart and has been a big part of my professional endeavours over a large part of my career. I am eager to take on this new role and the responsibility that it brings, and uphold the faith that the team at KWAN has bestowed upon me.”
Vijay Subramaniam said, “For me, the KWAN journey has been nothing short of a dream fulfilled. I feel honoured and privileged to be able to continue the good work that we have achieved as a team over the years. I am confident that, with Anirban guiding the company’s strategic vision, Indranil and I will add more milestones to KWAN’s ongoing success story by leading the company into the next phase of its growth.”
Since its inception, KWAN has created an extensive popular culture universe in India comprising leading Bollywood and regional celebrities, native digital content creators, musicians, prominent fashion & lifestyle personalities, and specialist influencers. It works across multiple domains such as celebrity management, live entertainment, sports, TV, licensing, movie packaging, music, and regional cinema, and has also invested in and run various media-related businesses. KWAN is currently associated with several top Indian celebrities such as Ranbir Kapoor, Deepika Padukone, Hrithik Roshan, Sonam Kapoor, Tiger Shroff, Jacqueline Fernandez, Sania Mirza, Rana Dagubatti, Mahesh Babu, Pritam, Shraddha Kapoor, and Sushant Singh Rajput, to name a few.
