Peter Mukerjea is a retired British television executive. From 1997 to 2007 he was the CEO of

STAR India Disney Star Private Limited is an Indian media conglomerate and a wholly owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company India. It is headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. Disney Star network runs more than 70 TV channels in eight languages, rea ...

. In 2007 he joined INX Media as chief strategy officer. He quit the company in 2009 and retired to

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, city, Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Glouces ...

. In November 2015 he was arrested by the

Central Bureau of Investigation The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is the premier investigating agency of India. It operates under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions. Originally set up to investigate bribery and government ...

in connection with the Sheena Bora murder case and had been in judicial custody at

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the secon ...

Arthur Road Jail The Mumbai Central Prison, also referred to as Arthur Road Jail, was built in 1926, and is Mumbai's largest and oldest prison. It houses most of the city's prisoners. It was declared a Central Jail in 1972. Although its name was changed to Mumba ...

. In February 2016 he was formally charged under

Indian Penal Code The Indian Penal Code (IPC) is the official criminal code of India. It is a comprehensive code intended to cover all substantive aspects of criminal law. The code was drafted on the recommendations of first law commission of India established ...

Sections 302 (murder), 120-B (conspiracy) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence). He was released on bail on 20 March 2020.In February 2021 ( 15/2/2021 ) Peter’s first book ‘STARSTRUCK’ - Confessions of a TV Executive - was published by Westland Amazon.

Personal life

Peter Mukerjea was born in

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

. His father was a doctor. He graduated from the

Doon school The Doon School (informally Doon School or Doon) is a selective all-boys boarding school in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India, which was established in 1935. It was envisioned by Satish Ranjan Das, a lawyer from Calcutta, who prevised a school mode ...

Dehradun Dehradun () is the capital and the List of cities in Uttarakhand by population, most populous city of the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous Dehradun district, district and is governed by the Dehr ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

in 1971. He attended college in UK. He took evening classes to study

business management Business administration, also known as business management, is the administration of a commercial enterprise. It includes all aspects of overseeing and supervising the business operations of an organization. From the point of view of managemen ...

. He has a younger brother called Gautam Mukerjea who runs a lifestyle magazine named ''Planet Goa''. Peter married Shabnam Singh in May, 1978. The couple had 2 sons, Rabin, born in 1980, and Rahul, born in 1982, before divorcing in 1994. Rahul Mukerjea currently lives in Badripur near

with his mother. Peter lived and worked in Mumbai while employed with

. In 2000, he was named as the first Indian Tennessee Squire by Brown-Forman Corporation, the makers of Jack Daniel's whiskey. In 2002

Alyque Padamsee Alyque Padamsee (5 March 1928 – 17 November 2018) was an Indian theatre personality and ad film maker. He played Muhammad Ali Jinnah in the 1982 British period film '' Gandhi''. Besides being involved in Indian theatre as an actor and produc ...

introduced Peter to Indrani Bora, an HR consultant 16 years his junior. Later that year Peter married Indrani in a small wedding ceremony in friend

Suhel Seth Suhel Seth (born May 1963) is an Indian businessman and columnist who is the founder and managing partner of the consultancy firm Counselage India. Seth is also a columnist, actor, keynote speaker, and a TV Pundit. He currently serves as the ...

's garden house in New Delhi. After marriage, Indrani's daughter from a previous marriage, Vidhie Khanna, moved in with them and took the Mukerjea name. In 2005 Indrani introduced her children from a previous relationship, Sheena Bora and Mikhail Bora, to Peter as her younger siblings. In 2006 Sheena Bora moved in with them and enrolled in St. Xavier's College, Mumbai.

Career

Peter Mukerjea started his career in marketing with American food processing company

Heinz The H. J. Heinz Company is an American food processing company headquartered at One PPG Place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the co ...

and British retailer Storehouse plc in

. He worked with the advertising agency

Ogilvy & Mather Ogilvy is a New York City-based British advertising, marketing, and public relations agency. It was founded in 1850 by Edmund Mather as a London-based advertising agency, agency. In 1964, the firm became known as Ogilvy & Mather after merging wit ...

as Account Director in

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament Hous ...

and

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

followed by a stint with

DDB Needham DDB Worldwide Communications Group LLC, known internationally as DDB, is a worldwide marketing communications network. It is owned by Omnicom Group, one of the world's largest advertising holding companies. The international advertising networks ...

as Regional Group Account Director in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...

. In 1993 he joined

STAR TV Star TV may refer to: * E! (Canadian TV channel) (formerly Star!), a Canadian entertainment news channel * Las Estrellas (Spanish for The Stars), the Mexican television network * Estrella TV (Spanish for Star TV), the American Spanish-language net ...

as Sales Director (India) in Hong Kong. He moved to

shortly after joining to establish STAR TV's advertising sales division in India. In 1996 Peter acquired additional responsibility for the Middle East market. In 1997 he was promoted to Executive Vice President. In 1999 he became Chief Executive Officer of

and served in that position for 8 years. Peter represented Star TV's interests as a member of the Board of Directors of television channel

ESPN STAR Sports Fox Sports (formerly ESPN Star Sports) was a pan-Asian pay television network broadcasting in Asia, operated by Fox Networks Group Asia Pacific, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company (Southeast Asia) Pte. Ltd. It also oversaw a version of Sta ...

, cable television service operator

Hathway Hathway Cable & Datacom Ltd, formerly BITV Cable Networks, is an Indian cable television service operator based in Mumbai. It was the first company to provide Internet using the CATV network in India, and the first cable operator to launch a ...

and joint venture company ''Media Content and Communications Services (India)'' for

Star News ABP News is an Indian Hindi-language free-to-air television news channel owned by ABP Group. The news channel was launched in 1998 originally as STAR News before being acquired by ABP Group. It won the Best Hindi News Channel award in the 21 ...

. In January 2007 Peter resigned from

. The terms of his resignation included a

non-compete clause In contract law, a non-compete clause (often NCC), restrictive covenant, or covenant not to compete (CNC), is a clause under which one party (usually an employee) agrees not to enter into or start a similar profession or trade in competition again ...

that restricted him from joining a competing broadcast service for 6 months. Peter therefore took on the role of chairman of his wife Indrani Mukerjea's human resource company, INX Services Pvt. Ltd. After the expiry of the non-compete clause in July 2007, Peter joined INX Media, where he took on the role of chief strategy officer. He resigned from his position in 2009. By April 2010 he had sold his stake in the company. In May 2011, he resigned from his position on the board of directors of the company. Peter has resigned as director at INX Executive Search Private Limited. He is an

angel investor An angel investor (also known as a business angel, informal investor, angel funder, private investor, or seed investor) is an individual who provides capital for a business or businesses start-up, usually in exchange for convertible debt or ownersh ...

in Kratos, an on-demand digital advertisement platform.

Legacy

Peter Mukerjea is considered one of the most successful executives in the history of Indian television industry. Under his leadership,

was transformed from a loss-making operation into India's most-watched television channel with hit shows such as

Balaji Telefilms Balaji Telefilms is an Indian company that produces Indian soap operas, reality TV, comedy, game shows, entertainment, and factual programming in several Indian languages. Balaji Telefilms is promoted by Ekta Kapoor and Shobha Kapoor and is a p ...

' soap opera ''

Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi ''Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi'' ( ''Because a mother-in-law was once a daughter-in-law, too'') is an Indian Hindi-language soap opera that aired from 4 July 2000 to 7 November 2008 on Star Plus. The show was co-produced by Shobha Kapoor ...

'' and host

Amitabh Bachchan Amitabh Bachchan (; born as Amitabh Shrivastav; 11 October 1942) is an Indian actor, film producer, television host, occasional playback singer and former politician known for his work in Hindi cinema. He is regarded as one of the most succe ...

's quiz show '' Kaun Banega Crorepati''. At

, Peter forged and nurtured a team whose members have become senior media executives in their own right: Raj Nayak, Ajay Vidyasagar, Jagdish Kumar,

Sameer Nair Sameer Nair (born 1965) is an Indian media executive and business professional currently serving as CEO of Applause Entertainment Limited. He helped revamp the Star India, Star One, Star Utsav, Star Gold, Star Vijay and Channel V television n ...

Tarun Katial Tarun Katial (born 7 January 1975) is an Indian media executive and business professional, known for his work in Indian television. He served as CEO of Reliance Broadcast Network and ZEE5 (2018–2020). He was a founder and CEO of Big FM. He is ...

, Tony D'Silva, Sumantra Dutta, Anant Rangaswami, Yash Khanna, Seema Mohapatra, Monica Tata, Sunita Rajan, Vibhu Sharma and Rajnath Kamath.

India Today ''India Today'' is a weekly Indian English-language news magazine published by Living Media India Limited. It is the most widely circulated magazine in India, with a readership of close to 8 million. In 2014, ''India Today'' launched a new on ...

magazine listed Peter Mukerjea among the 50 most powerful people in India for 3 consecutive years from 2004 to 2006.

Sheena Bora murder

In August 2015, Peter was questioned by

Mumbai Police The Mumbai Police ( Marathi: मुंबई पोलीस, IAST: ''Mumbaī Pulīs'', formerly ''Bombay Police'') is the police department of the city of Mumbai, Maharashtra. It is a part of Maharashtra Police and has the primary responsibilit ...

in connection with the alleged murder of Sheena Bora, his step daughter. He submitted a written statement to the police that was prepared in conjunction with his lawyer. He claimed that his passport was evidence that he was in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

at the time of the murder in April, 2012. In November 2015 Peter was arrested by the

(CBI) for his alleged role in the murder conspiracy. He was kept in CBI custody for two weeks during which period he subjected to a polygraph test with his consent and in the presence of his lawyer. In December 2015 Peter was remanded to judicial custody in

. CBI officials were granted multiple extensions to his judicial custody based on their contention that Peter and Indrani Mukerjea siphoned off money from INX Media and parked it in an offshore bank account in Sheena Bora's name. In February 2016 the CBI filed a

chargesheet In policing on the Indian subcontinent, a chargesheet is prepared after First Information Reports (FIRs), and charges an individual for (some or all of) the crimes specified in those FIR(s). Once the charge sheet has been submitted to a court ...

against him that charged him under Sections 302 (murder), 120-B (conspiracy) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) of the

. On March 20, 2020, Peter wa
released
from Arthur Road Jail, six weeks after he was granted bail by the High Court and over 4.5 years after his initial arrest.

References

External links