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Arts and Entertainment: Ashvini Yardi

Age: 36
Programing Head, Viacom Colors

Yardi, who has a fascination for Louis Vuitton bags, could easily act in one of her serials but prefers to be behind the scenes. She is the programming chief at Colors, the upstart television channel from Viacom that rocketed to No. 2 in the Hindi general entertainment genre within six months of its launch last July. Yardi has changed the rules of programming by giving viewers contemporary plots instead of the junk they were fed as entertainment. After spending 14 years at local channel Zee, Yardi recently succeeded in dislodging the market leader, News Corp's Star Plus.

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