Subhash Chandra
Chairman, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited
Subhash Chandra is the founder and Chairman of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited and the Essel Group of companies. The Essel Group has business interests across the globe in media, entertainment, packaging, technology-enabled services, infrastructure development and education.
Born in Hissar, a small town in north India, Chandra entered his family business of exporting rice at the age of 19. Soon after, he started a vegetable oil unit, which within a few years achieved a turnover of USD 2.5 million. In 1981, he made his first foray into the packaging business. Today, Essel Propack is the largest specialty packaging company in the world.
In 1989, Chandra’s vision of the potential for amusement parks in India was the inspiration behind the development of what were at the time Asia’s largest amusement parks, Essel World and Water Kingdom, spread over a 64-acre island site on the outskirts of Mumbai.
In 1991, he launched the first Hindi satellite channel in India - Zee TV. After the huge success of Zee TV, three more channels - Zee News, Zee Cinema & Zee Music - were added. These were followed by various English and regional channels to provide entertainment to audiences across India. The Zee Network today is the largest producer and aggregator of Hindi programming in the world, with more than 50,000 hours of original programming in its library.
In 1995, Chandra established Siticable, a cable service provider, which has grown over the years to become the one of the largest MSOs in India. Chandra subsequently founded India’s first private DTH service, Dish TV, which currently serves almost 2 million households.
Chandra’s innovative concept of “the best out-of-home entertainment experience” gave birth to E-City in 1999. The company has several family entertainment centres across the country, which house movie multiplexes, food courts, restaurants, shopping areas, bowling alleys and various other entertainment options. Another first from the Essel group is India’s first online lottery ‘Playwin’.
Chandra has made his mark as an influential philanthropist in India. He set up TALEEM (Transnational Alternate Learning for Emancipation and Empowerment through Multimedia) to provide access to quality education through distance and open learning. He is also the chairman of the Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation of India – a movement to eradicate illiteracy from rural and tribal India. He is the trustee of the Global Vipassana Foundation - a trust to help people raise their spiritual quotient. He has also created the Brain Trust of India, to identify and nurture gifted children.
Today, the Zee network has the largest global reach among Indian television audiences, with an estimated 500 million viewers across 35+ channels in over 120 countries globally. Zee is the largest publicly held media company in India, and is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange.
