From the World This Week to CNN IBN and Rajdeep Sardesai

World This Week was the first private news programme that I remember seeing in DD, the only channel that was available to us at that time. It used to come on Thursday nites, and then got shifted to Sunday nites at 11 PM. A crisp 1 hour programme, on what’s happening in the world around us. It was a show which did no have any comparison at that point of time.

Prannoy Roy, the bearded anchor and producer of the show, became a household name in India. He built his name and image to such a level that anything he presented came to be taken as the gospel truth or the most reliable information on the waves. Be it the election analysis or the budget analysis, his crisp analysis and getting the best out of the guests that he interviewed was uncomparable. There was one more anchor, Appan Menon, who sadly is no longer with us. He was also a gem of a reporter and a star anchor. I still remember the few minutes of airtime that was allowed to express condolence to this great reporter, where it was edited bits of Appan Menon, saying “ this is Appan Menon, reporting from Washington, London, Beijing and where not.

When Prannoy Roy split with the Star Group and started his own news channel, it was welcomed by one and all again. A refreshing change, as there was no good English news channel and it fitted the need gap very well. Most important at that point of time, there was a dedicated group of individuals, who left Star along with him in search of a new identity. Prominent among them were Rajdeep Sardesai, Barkha Dutt, Sreenivasan Jain, Vikram Chandra, Sonali Chander and others. He had a good team and all the individual presenters made a name for themselves.

Among the second string of news presenters, the personality who impressed me the most was Rajdeep Sardesai. He was emotional, authoritative, had a strong point of view and was matter of fact. He had a charisma to carry an entire show like the Walk the Talk, which was a debate where high profile personalities clashed on the controversial topic of that week. He knew how to get stuff out of the panelists and when to make them shut up. He conducted some of the most high profile interviews during the elections, with Laloo Prasad Yadav being the best of the lot. His contacts across the Political and Bureaucratic class are immense and looked like the next best Prannoy. His programme, Turning Poitn at 10 PM was an analysis of the day’s top stories. But I am yet to see him do an Election or Budget analysis with the clarity of a Prannoy.

Barkha braved the Kargil war and got accolades for her reporting of the war and the turmoils at those times. She was a celebrity over the fortnight and is still famous for that. Other than that she has tried to anchor some programmes, but to no good effect. She still reports some of the more important stories in NDTV.

Sreenivasan Jain, somehow was always overshadowed by Rajdeep and more recently, was good in covering the election reports from the South of India. His handling of the Walk the Talk, leaves mush to be desired. His Mumbai Live was just a little off the cuff. He doesn’t look and talk like a mature journalist at all. The rest of them were just ok kind and there was no one to carry the NDTV bandwagon forward.

When Bunty and Babli got released, Prannoy Roy allowed the 9 PM news to be presented by the actors of the movie. Well journalism gave way to a commercial possibility and they sold their ethics for a few lakhs of rupees, a la TOI. Well, Rajdeep had some issues before this, but this was the last straw. He quit NDTV and there were many rumours floating around as to what his future plans are.

His plans have finally borne fruit in the shape of another grand joint venture in the media industry, this time between CNN and TV 18. The channel, called CNN IBN, has viewers sticking to it just on the Rajdeep name. But the channel is trying to portray some more faces to the people of this country. Let me wish Rajdeep all the luck for this new venture. Not that I know him personally, but just a wish from my side.