Tarun Katial

Advertising and early television (1990s–2004)

Katial began his career as a media trainee at Saatchi & Saatchi, subsequently working at Enterprise Nexus Lowe and Ogilvy & Mather. He later joined Star Network, where he headed several channels, rising to senior vice-president of Star Plus. He then moved to Sony Entertainment Television as its business head and executive vice-president in 2004.^[3]

During his tenure at Sony Entertainment Television, Katial was responsible for several successful Indian television productions including Indian Idol, Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC), Bigg Boss, Fear Factor: Khatron Ke Khiladi, and Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin.^[4] Katial has recalled that Amitabh Bachchan initially declined to host KBC and required months of convincing, including trips to the UK where Bachchan encountered the original format Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and recognised its scale. Bachchan subsequently rehearsed daily for months in the basement of the Star Plus office before filming the first episode, and the debut promotional film was shot in the United Kingdom.^[5]

Big FM (2006–2018)

In 2006, Katial co-founded 92.7 Big FM, a private FM radio network, where he served as COO and later CEO for over twelve years.^[4] He also established Thwink BIG, a content incubator, and the BIG TV channels Magic and Ganga during this period.^[6]

While at Reliance Broadcast Network, Katial co-founded the BIG Star Entertainment Awards in 2010 in collaboration with Star India.^[7]

ZEE5 (2018–2020)

Katial joined ZEE5 in November 2016 and was appointed its CEO in May 2018.^[8] Under his leadership, ZEE5 grew to 61 million monthly active users and expanded its content library to over 125,000 hours across 14 languages.^[6] He resigned from the position in November 2020.^[9]

In 2019, Katial became the first Indian CEO from the OTT industry to speak at the 24th Paley International Council Summit.^[10]

coto (2021–present)

In June 2021, Katial founded Eve World Platform Pte. Ltd., initially launching a women-first social community platform under the name coto, with investment from Jungle Ventures through the firm's First Cheque@Jungle programme for experienced founders.^[11][12]

The platform subsequently pivoted to focus on expert-led emotional wellness consultations, with monetisation launching in July 2024. coto now operates as a 24/7 digital emotional wellness platform offering live consultations across mental health, relationship coaching, astrology, tarot, Reiki, chakra healing, and meditation.^[13][14] Katial has described his ambition as making emotional wellness "as fundamental as physical fitness", citing a personal turning point when he practised Vipassana meditation after leaving Star TV.^[13] The platform has facilitated over two million minutes of consultations across India, the US, UK, Canada, and the UAE.^[1]

In 2026, coto launched Joy Bot, described as India's first belief-adaptive AI companion for emotional wellness, built on over three million minutes of recorded human conversations and underpinned by a 30-guardrail safety system.^{[15][16][17][18]} Joy Bot supports over 20 billion possible configurations based on user belief systems and emotional context.^[19]

Other activities

Katial is a TEDx speaker and has been featured in Episode 5 of "Dreamers, Disruptors: Redefining Leadership", a joint leadership series by The Quint and Bloomberg Quint, in which he discussed trends in digital entertainment and the future of content storytelling.^[20] He has served as jury chair for the Ad Club Abby and DMAI, committee member with FICCI and CII, and Vice President of the Association of Radio Operators for India (AROI).^[21] He also invests in and mentors edtech and media-tech businesses.^[2]