K Aravamudhan, the Executive Director (Government Affairs) at The Walt Disney Company, will be joining Viacom18 to head its public policy portfolio, e4m has learnt.

At Disney Star, he worked closely with the government overseeing regulatory affairs and industry relations on behalf of the company and its regional channels, sports broadcasting and leagues (Star Sports), movie production & distribution (Star Studios) and OTT (Disney+Hotstar).

Aravamudhan joined Star India in 2007 as Manager, Corporate Communication, but he later moved to the regulatory team in 2008.

From 1989 to 1993, he had a brief stint working with the government and then moved on to take up more challenging roles in the private sector.

Before joining Star, he worked with Hindustan Times (Eyewitness and Home TV), SAB TV, UTV and ITV (producing news and current affair shows) and Star News (MCCS).

Aravamudhan has been instrumental in elevating Star India's leadership thanks to his active engagement with various government stakeholders like political execs, bureaucrats, regulators, industry veterans, influencers and journalists.

He is among the few executives from the broadcast industry who closely witnessed the evolution of the Indian broadcasting sector -- from the opening up of DD channels for private production houses to the proliferation of the sector with 900-odd TV channels. He has been an active participant in many of the policy and regulatory initiatives by the government of India and as part of Star India.

Aravamudhan is associated with industry bodies such as FICCI, CII, USIBC, USISPF, IAMAI, BIF, Assocham, IBDF, PGI, and ASCI amongst others.