Now STAR says they have gone

NEW DELHI: The STAR Group on Sunday put an end to all the speculation about its top management in India by announcing the exit of Peter Mukerjea and Sameer Nair. This comes a few days after STAR Group CEO Michelle Guthrie put in her papers.

Until last week, Mukerjea and Nair were denying any move to quit. After Sunday’s announcement, neither could be reached for comment. Talk in the industry is that Nair is joining NDTV Entertainment, a new channel from the NDTV stable in which filmmaker Karan Johar has a stake.

Mukerjea, it is believed, will join his wife’s recruitment company as chairman as a stop-gap arrangement. Mukerjea is not allowed to join a rival TV company until the term of his contract with STAR expires next year.

Though STAR is scouting for a CEO for its India operations, the group’s newly designated CEO, Paul Aiello, will hold charge for now. Among the names doing the rounds is that of journalist Vir Sanghvi, but STAR has denied this.