About

Natasha Fernandes went in-house immediately after the completion of her legal studies in 2002, joining GP Consultants & Developers, a property development firm, as a legal officer. After gaining exposure to court procedures, Fernandes moved to law firm P. V. Nichani & Co. After a year there, practicing in courts all over Mumbai, including the High Court, she moved back in-house with a brief spell at Indian business conglomerate Shapoorji Pallonji Group as legal assistant. Her next role was as a legal executive at Star India, an Indian media and entertainment company and subsidiary of 21st Century Fox, covering their programming and real estate operations. Joining B4U Television, one of the world’s leading Bollywood networks, in 2005 as assistant legal manager, Fernandes began to shape the legal department, handling everything from channel distribution, marketing, human resources, regulatory, film production and distribution. As a mark of the trust and confidence in her work, she had already been promoted internally once before being appointed head of legal for India as well as a director of the company in 2009. Known as a ‘very hard negotiator’ demonstrating ‘absolute professionalism and performance under pressure’, Fernandes has successfully fought a number of litigations for the company. ‘In one of our major litigations, which went right up to the Supreme Court, we tight cornered our opponent to bring them to an out of court favourable settlement. Our legal contractual negotiations are more than often a win-win situation’, she says.