Samir Nair left Star & joined NDTV as Chief Executive of NDTV Imagine LTD. He discusses his plans with Subhash K Jha.

How does the move feel?
Exciting. I joined from April 2....thank God it wasn't April 1— bach gaye, ha ha. To start with we'll do a Hindi entertainment channel. Then we'll go on to many other things. The sky's the limit. Today is my Day 3 at my new work place.

Getting office and team in place, putting ideas down. I've been at the helm affairs for seven years at Star. It's supremely exciting. The change will bring out the best in me. My ex-boss always used to say change brings challenge and challenge brings excellence.

It's a good process of re-discovery for me. I've been closely associated with the television business. But the idea now is to do everything connected with entertainment in the television space.

You seem to have taken a large part of your efficient team from Star to NDTV?
Yes, some of them are accompanying me. Others will stay back. Yes Shailja Kejriwal who's been a part of my creative team from the start, will join me at NDTV. When I'm asked what I'm going to do, I say something old something new something borrowed and a touch of new. What I'm going to do at NDTV is what I'd have done at Star if I had stayed on.

How heavy will be the inflow of Bollywood?
Bollywood and television are so closely linked. In recent years we've had Mr Bachchan, Shah Rukh and Karan Johar coming into television. The marriage between Bollywood and television will be further solemnized.

There'll be a lot of Bollywood on our channel for sure. I'm also part owner of this new channel. That brings an even greater sense of responsibility. The stakes are higher. Hence the victories and losses are also higher. Karan Johar who's also part of NDTV has a lot to do.

Karan will bring a lot of stars into the channel?
I've much more in mind for Karan to do than bring in the stars. He has fantastic vision. We're looking at many ideas. General entertainment covers a big part of the imagination.

Would you like Star to be your biggest rival?
Well at the moment it's the biggest channel and network. I'm always pursuit of excellence. So yes I'd want NDTV Imagine to go right up there. If our channel beats Star at the TRPs game I'd be elated.

Would you miss Star?
Of course. The Star colleagues gave me a great farewell party on Friday night. It was a super show. My friends bought me a really fancy mobile phone. And then they gave me a watch. They're all such close friends. Leaving Star was like growing up and leaving home.

At the moment we're getting our new office done. When I joined Star in 1994 we built the Star office scratch. Now I'm re-visiting the past as the new office comes up. It's exciting times for me. I'm really kicked.