Subhash
Chandra is the founder of Zee TV, India's first private TV channel.
Though he did not go to college, he had the entrepreneurial skills to
set up new and profitable ventures.
Early Days
Subhash
Chandra was born on November 30th 1950, in Hisar, Haryana, a small town
in north India. He dropped out of school after completing his 12th due
to adverse financial conditions. His family was in a debt of Rs. Five
lakh. He was just 19 and started his own vegetable oil unit. He entered
the family business of exporting rice along with his brothers. The
family business was to procure and supply rice to the Food Corporation
of India.
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Birth of the Spark
His
astuteness and street smart attitude in his own words -- "If I had
creditors worth 10 lakh rupees (US$21,750 at Rs45.98 = $1) and if I had
US$2,000 coming as a receipt of the sale proceeds, I would put it in my
bag and I would go to each shop. If I had to pay somebody US$500, I
would give them US$100 there and then. So it became my reputation: Don't
go to his shop for recovery of money; as soon as the money comes he
will come and pay. Then there was no stopping. Building the confidence
of people taught me a lot."
His astuteness and acumen helped improve his business. He became wealthy by exporting rice to the Soviet Union.
A
visit to a packaging exhibition in the 70s led him to set up his own
packaging company, Essel Packaging Limited in 1981. Initially, they made
laminated covers for the FCI to store surplus agricultural produce.
Then, they also manufactured laminated tubes for use by Colgate
Palmolive and Hindustan Lever. It was firmly established only by
1987-88. Later, it merged with the Swiss group Propack A.G. and was
renamed Essel Propack Packaging limited. Today, it is the largest
specialty packaging company in the world.
Zee TV
Subhash
Chandra launched Zee TV in October 1991, the first Hindi satellite
channel, at a time when many Indians were keen to follow news of the
Gulf War. The idea was conceived when he was watching the news on CNN in
the office of Ashok Kurien. At that time, they used to watch the Gulf
War being televised in some hotels. At the time of the launch of Zee TV,
the Indian viewers were restricted to content broadcast by public
sector owned network. He was the first to harness the huge business
potential of satellite television channels. It was his pioneering vision
and efforts that brought about the birth of satellite television
industry in India. Zee television became India's most popular network
and has become a global brand. The value of Zee's stock rose drastically
by 15000% in a short span of 7 years (1993-2000), making it the fastest
rising Indian stock of all time. In a short period of time, Zee TV has
grown immensely and is giving tough competition to international media
barons like Rupert Murdoch, who owns Star TV. Zee TV is amongst
the largest producers and aggregators of Hindi programming in the world,
with an extensive library housing over 80,000 hours of television
content. With rights to more than 3,000 movie titles from foremost
studios and of iconic film stars, Zee houses the world's largest Hindi
film library.
Subhash
Chandra invested all his profits in land in Mumbai. He developed
EsselWorld -- India's Largest Amusement Park in 1988 and Water Kingdom –
Asia's Largest Theme Water Park in 1998 designed by French architect
Jean Michel Rouls. It was built on a sprawling 64-acre and became a
getaway to a complete leisure destination. In his own words, "I felt
that in Bombay or even in India a lot of people do not have clean and
healthy entertainment. So that's why we built the amusement park." Its
never-before seen attractions set amidst unique architecture with
international standard amenities and hygiene; catapult Water Kingdom
into a different league. It is the only, truly international water park
experience in India. It is India's first eco-friendly amusement park.
Subhash
Chandra commenced SitiCable in 1995 and started a joint venture with
News Corp. Siticable, which he jointly owns with Rupert Murdoch, has
become the biggest provider of cable Internet services in India. Both
Subhash and Murdoch own equal shares in Asia Today Ltd (ATL), a Hong
Kong-based Broadcasting company that provides television programming to
various stations. He also launched two new channels – Zee News and Zee
Cinema in 1995. In 2000, the company launched Internet over Cable
services, adding another feather to its pioneering achievements. Zee
became the first service provider of Direct to Home (DTH) services in
2003.
The
Pioneer of television entertainment industry in India, Zee's well known
brands include Zee TV, Zee Cinema, Zee Premier, Zee Action, Zee
Classic, Ten Sports, Ten Cricket, Ten Action+, Zee Cafe, Zee Studio, Zee
Trendz, Zee Khana Khazana, Zee Salaam, Zee Jagran, Zing, ETC Music and
ETC Punjabi. The company also has a strong presence in the regional
language domain with channels such as Zee Marathi, Zee Bangla, Zee
Telugu, Zee Kannada, Zee Talkies and Zee Cinemalu.
Subhash
Chandra is the founder and Chairman of Essel Group, which is among
India's most prominent business houses with a diverse portfolio of
assets in media, packaging, entertainment, technology-enabled services,
infrastructure development and education. It has metamorphosed into a
conglomerate that is a symbol of the ingenuity and power of Indian
entrepreneurship, with worldwide operations and a workforce of nearly
8,000 dedicated employees.
Subhash
started a cricket league, Indian Cricket League in 2007. It was set up
parallel to the League run by the BCCI and followed the T20 format.
However, this was one of his ventures that did not last.
His
businesses cover television networks (Zee), a newspaper chain (DNA),
cable systems (Wire and Wireless Ltd), direct-to-home (Dish TV),
satellite communications (Agrani and Procall), theme parks (EsselWorld
and Water Kingdom), online gaming (Playwin), education (Zee Learn),
flexible packaging (Essel Propack), infrastructure development (Essel
Infraprojects Ltd) and family entertainment centres (Fun Cinemas). Mr
Chandra has charted a course of growth and success, unparalleled in
business history. Subhash knew nothing about programming, distribution
rights, but he knew the Indian sensibilities and had his finger firmly
on the pulse of the people. He was a self made man who used his native
smartness to further his business.
Quotes
"Paths are made by walking and walking down beaten paths is for beaten men"
"Basically,
human resource development is the biggest [leadership] challenge.
First, to select the right people; and, second, to nurture and develop
them."
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Awards and Honors
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Philanthropist
Chandra
also played an instrumental role in the formation of the Brain Trust of
India which identifies & nurtures the gifted children of India.
Transnational
Alternate Learning for Emancipation and Empowerment thorough Multimedia
TALEEM Research Foundation was set up by Chandra as a literary,
scientific and charitable society and trust in May 1996.
He
is the President of the Global Vipassana Foundation in his capacity as a
Vipassana meditator. Having completed the Vipassana course in the
1990s, he was impelled to spread the philosophy of mental purification
through self-observation.
Chairman
of Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation of India, a charitable trust that
initiates, supports and runs non-formal one teacher schools called Ekal
Vidyalayas all over the country. The movement aims to help eradicate
illiteracy from rural and tribal India by 2011.
Chandra is the founder-Chairman of the Global Foundation for Civilizational Harmony, an interfaith group.
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