Three years after joining JioStar, Kiran Mani has announced his departure from the company, calling his stint at JioHotstar one of the most transformative experiences of his career.
In a farewell note on LinkedIn he shared during his final week, Mani reflected on his role in building JioHotstar and described the journey as “purposeful, intense, fun, chaotic, exhilarating and absolutely unforgettable.”
Mani, who served as CEO, Digital at JioStar, will now join OpenAI as Managing Director for the Asia Pacific region, based out of Singapore.
“This week marks my final week at JioStar,” Mani wrote, adding that he was “beyond grateful” for the opportunity to help shape the platform over the last three years.
Describing the experience as a “rocketship”, Mani said working alongside Uday Shankar and Akash Ambani changed the way he viewed ambition, leadership and scale.
“I saw what it means to dream at a completely different scale,” he wrote, referring to decisions that often extended beyond what data alone could justify.
He also reflected on the relationships formed during his time at the company, saying many colleagues became close friends over the course of building the platform.
Recalling the launch of JioHotstar, Mani wrote, “Valentine’s Day will always mean something different to me now. That was the day JioHotstar was born.”
Beyond building a streaming platform, Mani said the role deepened his understanding of India’s entertainment and sports ecosystem. He noted that he came to appreciate cricket not just as a sport, but as a business operating at massive scale across languages, regions and cultures.
“What began as building a platform has become a daily love affair with half a billion Indians,” he wrote.
Mani concluded his note by thanking everyone who had been part of the journey, adding that operating at such scale reshaped his understanding of responsibility and impact.
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