Int’l Power Players: Desi Hits!

With friends in Bollywood and Hollywood, Desi Hits! chairman/CEO Anjula Acharia-Bath has made a name for herself as a one-stop shop for the import and export of pop stars to South Asia. In 2011, Interscope tapped her to steer marketing and public appearances for Lady Gaga in India, considered a delicate prospect at the time given the country’s conservative leanings and the overtly progressive politics of Gaga’s then-new album Born This Way. Acharia-Bath waged a campaign to endear the Mother Monster to key influencers in the Bollywood-centric entertainment industry. The result? A TV appearance beamed to 40 million homes, the cover of major daily newspapers and a splashy performance at the Formula 1 afterparty in New Delhi—with nary a scandalous headline in sight, no less. In 2013, Acharia-Bath flipped the script, helping break Indian Bollywood star/model Priyanka Chopra on American shores. “In My City,” the Will.i.am-featuring debut single from Chopra, a management client of Acharia-Bath’s, was made the official song of “NFL Thursday Night Football” in September. The next month, Guess made Chopra the face of the popular U.S. fashion brand—a first for a woman of South Asian descent. “People used to see countries like India and the Middle East as really far away and difficult to reach,” Acharia-Bath says. “But the world is much more accessible now.” —Reggie Ugwu

BACK TO THE INDEX