It must be said that the coverage of the 1984 elections changed the face of Indian television forever. After covering the 1984 elections, Prannoy Roy became a regular face on Doordarshan with his weekly show ‘The World This Week’. This show made a deep impression among discerning viewers who want to know the major events of the world. With his very dignified and superb anchoring, Dr. Prannoy Roy has become India’s favorite television personality
While the media world is abuzz with the news that Radhika and Dr. Prannoy Roy have resigned as directors from the board of RRPR Holding Pvt Ltd with effect from November 29, I am transported back to 1984. Those were the days when India was still many years away from the clamor of private TV channels. No one knew that something like Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms would soon invade our world. The telecom revolution was also far away. In those days I was a student of Delhi University and during summer vacation I used to work in a huge TV showroom of my friend’s family in the then Archana Cinema shopping arcade in Greater Kailash-Part I. This TV showroom belonged to Weston Company and also had a huge video library. Those were the days of the VCR. Movie buffs from the South and New Delhi thronged there to rent video cassettes. Although I wasn’t even remotely involved, I saw people coming there all the time.
This video library was handled by some employees of Kamal Vachani, son of Weston company founder Sundar Vachani. I clearly remember Kamal Vachani was a very polite person and struck up a conversation with his customers. Among the regular visitors to the library were none other than Radhika and Prannoy Roy. They lived in the Greater Kailash barsaati neighborhood and used to visit in their chocolate Fiat car. While Radhika Roy was working for the Indian Express, Dr. Prannoy Roy was teaching at the Delhi School of Economics.
I realized he was Dr. Prannoy Roy only when he hosted perhaps the first live election broadcast India had seen in 1984. He was there with Vinod Dua. These elections were held after the bloody assassination of Indira Gandhi and the ensuing anti-Sikh riots. This 24×7 election coverage was a mind-blowing experience for Indian television viewers. By this time I had already left Music Nest, although the esteemed Sunder Vachani had promised me key responsibilities at his Weston Company. Sunder Vachani created Mayfair Garden, an upscale residential area for Sindhis in South Delhi.
It must be said that the coverage of the 1984 elections changed the face of Indian television forever. After covering the 1984 elections, Prannoy Roy became a regular face on Doordarshan with his weekly show ‘The World This Week’. This show made a deep impression among discerning viewers who want to know the major events of the world. With his very dignified and superb anchoring, Dr. Prannoy Roy has become India’s favorite television personality. Even before NDTV started, his company was providing content to various channels.
In 1986, I joined the Hindustan Times group. Those were the days when part of HT’s bustling sports bureau was converted as the office of Sports Apartments, which was coming up at IP Extension in East Delhi. HT veterans like M Madhavan, Vinod Varshney, Aroon Kumar, Dr Kailash Papne have worked there after completing their office work. And we sports lovers also stopped by often to discuss the latest in sports with giants like PC Nigam, CS Rao, Sandeep Nakai and others. Film critic and poet Anil Saari often joined us as the HT Sunday Room was next to HT Sports.
And one day while we were discussing some matter there, we saw Dr. Prannoy Roy standing there talking to Vinod Varshni. In fact, he had come to hand over the three months’ installment of his apartment at Sports Apartments. It was the late 1980s and Dr. Prannoy Roy had already become a star on Indian television news. Vinod Varshni had introduced us to him. He was with us for a few minutes. We found him to be a most amiable gentleman. Even he had kadak tea from HT House with us. I reminded him that I worked for the Music Nest, where he was a regular visitor to pick up a tape of some Hollywood movie. We briefly shared notes from those days and then he left. But I saw him occasionally at HT house.
With Music Nest and HT House a distant memory, I still think about how people like Dr Prannoy Roy grabbed the opportunities that came their way and became a great name in India. He started his venture from the same place (Arhana cinema complex) where he used to shoot videotapes, preferring thrillers. He became the owner of the huge compound which originally belonged to Atma Ram Chadha, a big businessman from Delhi. Delhi University’s Atmaram Sanatan Dharam College (ARSD) is named after him. A few decades later, Dr. Prannoy and Radhika Roy have an empire worth hundreds of crores. They no longer lived in Barsaati and also sold their flat in IP Extension. Finally, since NDTV is controlled by Gautam Adani, India’s richest man, one has to assume that both gentlemen have one thing in common: they are both first-generation entrepreneurs. Like Dr. Roy, Gautam Adani also started his professional career in the 1980s. And now he is the richest man in Asia and has a net worth of $122.4 billion. He founded the Adani Group, a multinational conglomerate company engaged in port development and operations in India. His group has also become a crucial player in oil and gas exploration, coal trading and mining, power generation and multimodal logistics, and now media. Finally, Adani brought in Sanjay Pugalia and Senthil Siniya Chengalvarayan in place of the Roy pair on the board. Both are ace journalists. Adani Enterprises has roped in Pugalia as CEO and Editor-in-Chief to lead the group’s media initiatives in 2021. Whereas, Senthil Chengalvarayan is also a very formidable name in Indian business journalism. Chengalvarayan was also the editor-in-chief of Network 18’s business newsroom. Let’s hope that under the new order, NDTV will continue to do meaningful journalism.
(The author is a Delhi based senior journalist and writer. He is the author of Gandhi’s Delhi which brought to light many hidden facts about Mahatma Gandhi)