Some people recall the faces and some people recall the names. Here are images of some of the famous readers and presenters of Doordarshan down the years. If you recognize any of them, leave a comment.
[
Update 1: Most of the faces now have names thanks to helpful comments by
olio-gallimaufry]
[
Update 2: Included image of one of the earliest presenters, Gopal Kaul. Send in generously from personal collection by son, Ashutosh Kaul. Sept, 2010.]
[
Major Update 3: Got a tip-off about a documentary about the famous faces of Doordarshan from the makers
of
“The Golden Trail , DD@50 :Special feature on Golden Jubilee of Doordarshan” from which these caps were taken. I managed to catch the incredible documentary and am adding some more faces/name and part of the docu here. New ones can be found after the image of Narotam Puri. 30th Oct, 2010]
Pratima Puri. Believed to be the first Doordarshan reader.
Kamleshwar. Writer.
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| Melville De Mello |
Rini Khanna (?) Mukta, used to cover program weekly letter and response based program Aap aur Hum. (thanks to anony tipoff, check the comments)
Minu Talwar
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| Another one of Minu Talwar |
Sudha Chopra. Also appeared in a couple of films.
Jyotsana Rai
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| One more of Jyotsana Rai |
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| Another one of Jyotsana Rai |
Manoj Raghuvanshi
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| Veena Mishra (updated based on comment) |
Arshiya Bawa
Vinod Dua. Another famous face. Later moved to NDTV.
K.K. Raina.
Nalini Singh Harsaran Bir Kaur (?)
Narotam Puri, used to cover sports
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| Mukta Shrivastav |
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| Gitanjali Ayyar |
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| Gitanjali Iyer in print ad for Solidaire Tv. 1988. The Indian Express. (for reference check comments) |
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| Kaveri Mukherjee |
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| Shobhana Jagdish |
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| Rama Pandey |
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| Avinash Kaur Sarin |
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| Baritone Tejeshwar Singh |
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| Gerson Da Cunha |
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Dolly Thakore interviewing Hema Malini in a phone-in program.
Trivia: Indira Gandhi's defeat in 1977 election and Janta Party's win was announced on Doordarshan by newsreader Dolly Thakore. It is said that she, characteristically of a Doordarshan reader, was smiling. |
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Jayanthi Natarajan interviewing General Cariappa. She started her career at Doordarshan Madras.
She went on to join politics.
Shobhna Ravi |
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Sashi Kumar interviewing Kamal Hassan. Sashi Kumar. Started at madras station of Doordarshan and later among other things went on to launch Asiannet, India's first regional satellite channel.
Bhakti Barve, theater artist and film actor, started her career at Bombay station of Doordarshan.
Smita Patil started at Bombay station of Doordarshan as a reader.
Luku Sanyal, daughter of actor Pahari Sanyal, the first face of English news in Mumbai, with 'The News'.
Rajiv Mehrotra
Prannoy Roy hosting 'The week that was'The World This Week.
Suneet Tandon
N. Vishwanathan, from Calcutta Doordarshan. Acted in Satyajit Ray's Kanchenjunga (1962)
Sarla Maheshwari
Neethi Ravindran
Shobhana Jagdish
Ved Prakash |
As I have
written a bit about Kashmir station while writing about Doordarshan, it was an added delight to see Doordarshan Kashmir make a special appearance in the Documentary.
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| Syed Shabir Ahmed. Urdu voice at the Srinagar Station. Later also worked at Calcutta station. |
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| Naseem Khan joined Doordarshan Srinagar in 1973. |
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| Crew of Doordarshan Kashmir |
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The video:
vinod dua , manoj raghuvanshi , narottam puri were there for a long time and the former two still are..but yar who is the lady above raghuvanshi's pic ? i can't recall her name.
and , as always. u have brought back the nostalgia of those beautiful days of simplicity ...
is she shobana jagdish?
and can u give their names also please
Thanks, Sandeep! It's great that you actually remember. Updated the post with your info.
I am depending on others to come up with the names.
Hi Vinayak,
This is Jayesh Adhyaru.
These are fantastic stuff!
How did U get these images? I mean, U recorded DD's programme? When r they airing old stuff (as a part of Golden Jubilee Celebration)?
Hi Jayesh,
on 15 September Doordarshan had shown a special documentary titled "The Golden Trail , DD@50 :Special feature on Golden Jubilee of Doordarshan” as part of the celebration. I had managed to catch it. Tried to capture by muddled it, then found it uploaded on Youtube by some. Took the caps from that video. You can watch "The Golden Trail , DD@50 :Special feature on Golden Jubilee of Doordarshan” HERE at my previous blog post. Enjoy!
Also, prior to this documentary, for about a week their Delhi station was airing some vintage stuff in its evening transmission. I managed to watch an RD Burman stage performance in which Jalal Agha went crazy while performing 'Mehbooba Mehbooba'. It was awesome!
I am sure some of this stuff will soon be available on DVD.
Pic # 8 is Meenu Talwar. #13 is Arshiya Bawa. #15 is K.K. Raina.
Gallimaufry,
thank you! I could have never figured that out. And I had no idea K.K. Raina also read News...couldn't recognize him at all.
You're welcome! I'm enjoying the nostalgic memory jogs :)
#4 is Kamleshwar.
#9 is Sudha Chopra. She played Jaya Bhaduri's mother in the 1981 Yash Chopra film "Silsila".
#16 isn't Nalini Singh (she's slimmer and hasn't changed at all)
#10 is Jyotsana. (She didn't give out her last name).
You are great! I thought I would never get to know their names.
Even I am not sure about #16.
#4 Kamleshwar. Would have remembered him a couple of weeks later :) The cap here is from one of his early talk shows.
i am in love with jyotsana :)
and no,that's not rini khanna
Sandeep,
that's why you were eager to know her name :)
And was making a wild guess about Rini Khanna. But i am sure I have seen that face.
Read about an old print ad featuring a Doordarshan News reader Gitanjali Iyer:
In one advertisement for Solidaire TV, the headline boasts:"If the eye-lashes of the news-reader are clearly visible...it must be Solidaire" (India Today, December 31, 1985).
- 'Gandhi meets primetime: globalization and nationalism in Indian television' by Shanti Kumar
the Lady above Minu Talwar is Mukta, she used to cover program weekly letter and response based program Aap aur Hum
BTW the correct name of Minu is Menu Menon and not Talwar
A big thanks to Anonymous!
jyotsna's surname (as i know) was roy. mukta's was srivastava. btw mukta passed some 9 yrs back by cancer.
Thanks for the info.!
Above Narottam Puri (#14) looks like Harsaran Bir Kaur
Anony,
thanks! Let's see if others agree.
I stumbled across this by sheer (delightful) error. Nostalgia, super stuff. Anyone remember that bearded handsome newsreader - Tejinder Singh, I think his name was. Baritone voice. And, those from Madras Doordarshan would remember Shashi Menon and Usha Albequerque too.
Sats offline,
Tejinder Singh is of course a famous name. And Usha Albuquerque.
The faces I remember in 1980s are Deepak Vohra and the puppet 'Ji Saheb' in morning transmission; Tabassum in Afternoon transmission; Usha Albuquerque of News.
I remember Tabassum's afternoon show.
Can anyone provide me with the pic of Shobhana jagdish plz?
Can't help you with that.
The lady below Manoj Raghuvanshi is Avinash Kaur Sareen.
Thanks, Partha.
U r the Baap of Nostalgia
Saar.. Where is Rini Simon? Was someone whom we all 40 something today used to connect with during our college days.
Ah yes, but didn't Salma Sultan wear a rose behind her ear? I was too little; I don't remember.
I would recommend reading Anil Dharker's 'Sorry Not Ready (Television in the time of PM Darshan)' to anyone who wants to relive the DD days.
@Sunil
i actually needed a lot of help for this one. In fact, some of the face at the top (interestingly Male) still remain unidentified.
@Ramesh
the images here are just caps from Golden Anniversary DD special. Maybe it's time i add images of other presenters too. It's interesting that you mentioned Rini Khanna Simon. In the images above i misidentified Mukta as Rini Khanna. Rini Khanna joined Doordarshan back in 1985. Here's a link about her. I didn't know she's the voice for Delhi Metro . How about that!
@Wordsmithy
Even I was a kid back then. I read Salma Sultan started wearing the rose quite late, only in the 80s. Thanks for recommending the book! Will try to get my hands on it.
Theres Melville de Mello there! Whether it was the Republic Day parade or any other commentary, he used to lend his Angrez voice. :) Recently I saw a feature on Jim Corbett on DD Bharati made in the 1970s( my lil one was thrilled to see a prog abt his hero!) which had the entire narration by de Mello. It was sheer nostalgia fr me to hear that voice from my childhood.
Shankari,
too bad i missed the show. Would have loved to hear Melville de Mello's voice. I hope they have a 'repeat telecast'.
Isn't DD Bharati great! They have been dedicatedly sharing stuff from the Doordarshan archives.
Here' an interesting link about Melville De Mello.
u forgot the newscaster with prigous memory,Murli Damodharan
Hi! Vinayak,
Following ur blog for quite some time now & i really appreciate ur work.
Just wanted to point out that the programme hosted by Prannoy Roy was "The World This Week" and not'The week that was'
Shantanu,
my mistake. Thanks for pointing out!
Nice post...Those golden one and only TV broadcasting station days...
Some of the names that can be included are, Anjali Roy (she was my dream girl those days :)), Rini (Simon) Khanna, Pankaj Mohan (I loved his way of reading the news), Sandhya Rajagoplan (Chennai DD), Fathima Babu (Chennai DD)
Raj,
thanks for adding those names to the list.
Hey Vinayak,great job!
The photo immediately below N.Vishwanathan is of Sarla Maheshwari. The one below that is of an English newsreader(forgot the name!). Then is Shobhana Jagdish and the one after that one is of Ved Prakash.
Aakash,
thanks for the input! Have updated the post with these names. Shobhana Jagdish and Ved Prakash were perhaps the most popular face of News in the late 80s and the early 90s.
the one below narottam puri (used to cover sports) is mukta shrivastav.below her is gitanjali ayyar, then kaveri mukherjee. and one between shobhana jagdish and avinash kaur sarin is rama pandey .....not to be confused with later rama pandey who used to cover weather report.
Anony,
this is incredible! Thanks for the info., have updated the post with these names.
I may be wrong... but isn't the lady above Shobana Jagdish... the one with the mole and shor hair, Neeti Ravindran?
Hi ma name is MINU.When i was born ,doordarshan was d oly channel der in ma home.My family s fond of d news reader MINU.....Dats y i got d name MINU........!!!
Thanks a lot for the blog. We are missing CHAMAN GUPTA and the omnipresent "RUKAWAT KE LIYE KHED HAI" torn chappal. RAMU DAMODARAN was one of the best newscasters. In the pre-digiprompter days, he used to read without looking at his paper longer than any of us could ever imagine. YURI KHURANA was another charming face. Any news on her?
Regards,
R.Mukund
great to see more of the DD faces ...you are doing a great job...it was really great to see Ved Prakash ...please add Shammi Narang, and J V Raman as well>
(and special thanks for including a couple more pics of Jyotsna :))
and the lady next to Sarla Maheshwari is Neethi Ravindran
also , i think the voices in Delhi Metro (about a year ago ) are Komal G B Singh and Shammi Narang.
wow ...it is really amazing .Bring back memory of Sunday evening Movie..and Wednesday and Friday ..Chrithar
Sandeep,
thanks for adding all those names! Have name tagged Neethi Ravindran's pic.
I think it is Manjari Joshi below Manoj Raghuvanshi's picture.
In Delhi Metro, the announcers are Shammi Narang and Rini Khanna (previously known as Rini Simon) of Doordarshan.
hey
thr is also another reader who used t be present whenevr thr was a doordarshan report used to be shown in any movie .... i was jus watching Jaane Bhi do yaaron and was wondering what her name was .. any clues ???
@Anony
Bhakti Barve. She is featured in this post.
What A pleasant surprise to see my most un-forgettable colleagues. Thank u for creating such a memorable nostalgia.
A pleasure to hear that from you. Thanks for appreciation!
Thanks a lot Vinayak..This is a amazing read.I am half the age of durdarshan and I have grown up with it.This makes me miss that charm more n more.
I recall N Vishwanathan reading the English News on Calcutta Doordarshan in his impecccable accent in the late 70's .
Later when I went to St. Xaviers College , Calcutta , in the earliy 90's he was my English Professor too !!
Another interesting trivia
Tejeswar Singh had essayed the vilian's role in a Hindi movie named Jalwa (1985) that also starred Naseeruddin Shah & Archana Puran Singh
I do not see Sadhana Shrivasta's name anywhere on thi blog . She used to be my fav annoucer on DD Delhi !!!
Thank you Vinayak,for the 'nostalgia shared with us.It is my proud privilege to have written to Mr Melville de Mellow on two occasions- one on reading his article titled " The petals on Ganga" on the Anglo Indian Community published in The Illustrated weekly of India and on another occasion remembering his 'golden voice' over the AIR s a broadcaster.On both the occasions he has replied with warmth and affection.I cherish these two occasions.-voleti venkata subbarao , vernon hills IL-60061/USA
susee,
thanks for sharing your experience!
Hi This is a refreshing walk down memory lane. Are you sure about Rama Pandey's picture. Also it'll be great to have Sukanya Balakrishnan's picture. She read English news.
Anony,
As one of the commenter mentioned Rama Pandey here is."not to be confused with later rama pandey who used to cover weather report."
where is shami narang. iremeber him quikly putting back pen in his shirt ppocket after the news
I think the lady after Manoj Raghuvanshi is Veena mishra.
Then at Bombay DD there were Kumud Mirani (she had a short stint), Sarita Sethi, Harish bhimani, Kumar Elawadi, Arvind Mehra (for HIndi). Pradeep Bhide, a bearded guy in Khadi-Anant something.., Bhakti Barve, Smita talwalkar, Savita Prabhune (marathi). Then there was JV Raman at DD Nat Netwrok HIndi news
Wowww.. this was really amazing... what a journey down the memory lane! It was so nice to see all wonderful n pioneer faces in the world of media again during our childhood, after ages specially when they were all so young n in their hey-days! Thanks to all who have compiled this page though I could not find the person I was looking for here.
Yes, DJ the lady after Manoj Raghuvanshi is indeed Veena Mishra. If anybody knows the name of the lady who's appearing these days in the serial 'Bade Achhe Lagte Hain' on Sony TV as a language teacher working with 'Priya' pls post ur information here and enlighten us. She was one of the presenters on DD if I'm not mistaken.
And I agree with what Sandeep Kowaldkar wrote abt Shammi Narang... n smiled at it! Don't forget the rose flower always tucked on the side in Salma Sultana's juda!
Hi friends I am looking for Manju Sing's sister's name who was also a newsreader on doordarshan. Manju singh played the role of Amol Paleker's sister in Goalmaal. Her Sister was a famous newsreader Please help me find her name.this is Manju singh's picture. http://i1208.photobucket.com/albums/cc375/pooshipoo/383805_159113547524507_100002775882614_162008_1569703440_n.jpg
You have missed one very sophisticated English News reader's mention, who was a regular on Bombay's (Mumbai's) English News, in the 70's thru to the 80's. His name is Viren Luther, a very handsome and gentlemanly man, with a striking mustache.
Luther later went on to become the Executive Director of Film Festivals, and Director of NFDC (National Film Development Corporation.). So you can see, that you clearly missed his name in your list of Bombay's English News readers.
Please add his name, and I can provide the photo if you want.
there is no amita kohli , sister of manju singh, i think she was the best
Wow! this is amazing! even after 2 decades, I could relive those days by reading this, Thanks Vinayak.
that is great knowledge & revival of my old memories of growing up with Doordarshan
thank you for posting such stuff...
keep growing
From the first response on Oct 8, 2009 to this one of mine on Feb 23, 2012 shows how much we (my guess that we are all above 30's ) loved the good old DD days. Everyone has their own share of nostalgia associated with DD and I believe it would be embedded in their memories forever. Keep sharing ..Generation-DD :-) !!!...
I am still below 30 :)
Narottam Puri is (was) also a Delhi based doctor. I had my nose surgery done by him.