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Major changes at Studio18 results in mass exodus

Viacom18’s movie distribution arm, Studio18 seems to be in trouble after plans emerged of downscaling operations.

As a part of these upcoming changes, the company has seen a mass exodus of around 12 professionals at mid/senior management level.

Three top senior management officials at Studio 18 have decided to quit the organisation and will serve a three month notice, according to reliable sources: Tanuj Garg – Head of International Operations, Hemant Bhardwaj – Head of Domestic Operations, and Shariq Patel – Head of Production.

There have been a number of changes at Studio18 in recent months. CEO Sandeep Bhargava and Head of Domestic Operations Priti Shahani had also quit the organisation a while back followed by a number of mid-level departures from the company’s Domestic Marketing & Distribution teams.

With these new senior level departures, as Studio18 currently stands without any senior management, it is likely to be downscaling its operations to engage essentially in content creation and sales.

There is news that Viacom will shortly be making an additional capital infusion into Studio18 and Colors, and that a new COO from Balaji Telefilms will come on board.

Says a source close to the organisation, “Studio18 has seen a large number of departures in the preceding months, as there has been little clarity and communication from the promoters in defining a long-term vision for the company and the way forward. Even though the company was the least hit financially compared to the other players in the space, it came down to first gear from early this year in a bid to raise further capital.” The source adds, “Most of the recently exited personnel were instantly poached by competition. It remains to be seen where the three new exits go.”