I want to do television that would expand the frontiers, that has an impact and is archival. People are interested in doing things that make a quick headline and I don’t want that now…
I’m just a dilettante; I know a little about a lot to say and not a lot about anything in particular… Politics, that’s really my interest; all the others are just sidelines.
Suave, charismatic and one of the best-known faces of Indian journalism, Vir Sanghvi has held several coveted and high profile media positions. Educated at Mayo College, Ajmer and Oxford University, Sanghvi was just 22 when he became Founder-Editor of ‘Bombay’ magazine, possibly one of the youngest editors ever.
He was credited with the revamp of Imprint, one of India’s oldest magazines, which he joined in 1983. He shot to national fame when he became the Editor of ‘Sunday’, then India’s largest selling magazine, at the age of 30.
After a long and widely appreciated stint at the helm of ‘Sunday’, Sanghvi was appointed Consulting Editor for Ananda Bazaar Patrika Group in 1997. Two years later, he joined Hindustan Times as Editor. He is currently Advisory Editorial Director for HT Media Ltd.
Meanwhile, he had embarked on a parallel career on a different medium – television. He started hosting his first show on Doordarshan in 1994. ‘Round Table’, telecast on Doordarshan and CNN, began in 1996 and took him to newer and wider audiences. But it was his shows on the Star network – ‘A Question of Answers’ and ‘Star Talk’ that his popularity reached unprecedented levels.
Currently, Sanghvi divides his time between print and television even as he sets precedents for the rest of his fellow journalists to follow.
In a freewheeling conversation with exchange4media’s Noor Fathima Warsia, Sanghvi traces back his career, his early days in television and the new shows that he is working on, what he would like to do and INX News... Q. You seem to attract strong reactions – people love you or they don’t. How do you deal with it? Very simple... never complain, never explain. You just go ahead and do what you have to.
Q. So, how are you viewing your way forward? I see that I have two very different set of skills. The first are individual skills – I can write a column, I can shoot a programme, and the second are very group skills – I can, maybe, run a channel, but that is open to question; I can edit a newspaper. I’ve had a whole phase of doing group skills, whether it is running a paper, trying to turn it around. I am now very keen to concentrate on individual skills at the moment. It is a phase and I am sure it would change, but at the moment I am happy doing this.
Q. Not the news channel kind of shows? News channels want cheap programming that they can just air. They are not happy doing such shows.
Q. When it was beginning, did it look like it would sort out? One always thinks it would be sorted, and obviously we were working towards that. But there comes a point when one says that either I live a life of unpleasantness or I get on with my life. As was true of everyone at INX News, everyone there had options, so no one had to stay there. Everyone who left has done it for themselves. The idea was to create something different, and when it looked like that was not going to work out, it made no sense to waste more of your time.
Q. But is there anything particular that excites you more? Politics, that’s really my interest; all the others are just sidelines.
Q. Business, politics, lifestyle and food – all very different genres, but you look like quite an expert across all of it... I’m just a dilettante; I know a little about a lot to say and not a lot about anything in particular.
Q. And there is no new way of doing it? I want to do television that would expand the frontiers, that has an impact and is archival. The Discovery Travel & Living show is still being shown, and it is still relevant. You see any of the ‘Question and Answer’ things, and they are dated. Even when I did interviews, I tend to do archival interviews. The last time I did an interview was two years ago for NDTV. You can watch that interview we did with LN Mittal four years from now, and it would still tell you what LN Mittal is about. The interview we did with Sonia Gandhi was still about what shaped her and made her what she was. But such instances are rare. People are interested in doing things that make a quick headline and I don’t want that now.
Q. How easy is it to get into professional relationships with family friends? Actually, very easy. I have worked at India Today with Mohini Bhullar and Aroon Purie, who were friends. Mohini Bhullar’s son and I grew up together. I worked at Business Press in Mumbai with RV Pandit, who is a friend of my father, and who has known me as a child. I worked at Anand Bazar Patrika with Aveek Sarkar, another close friend. And now in HT, Shobhana (Bhartia) is possibly my closest friend. So, I have never actually had any difficulty in mixing friendship with profession. This was an exception.
Q. Was it easy to get back to being friends after the professional ‘break-up’? No, I think they are too embroiled with problems of their own. So, maybe when all of this is sorted out, we will all be friends again.
Q. Why is it that we don’t see you doing any more of that now? Now I have got bored of doing talk shows. When I started doing it then, very few others were doing it too. Now, everybody and his dog have an interview show. It seems a little silly because 12 interviewers are chasing the same five interviewees and asking the same questions again and again. I find that interview as a form of television in India, because it is cheap, has become overexposed. Also, increasingly I find that interviews tend to be superficial. In the old days, stars spoke to you because they liked you, now they do it to promote a movie.
Senior politicians do not give interviews anymore. Manmohan Singh has not given a single interview to television since he became Prime Minister. Sonia Gandhi, I think, has given one interview since she became leader of the ruling party. You end up getting the second rung players, who are all publicity hounds with their own agendas. Nothing really is achieved. In the days, when I started doing television, there still was a novelty value; people were willing to talk because they were interested, you could genuine answers from them. Now, people talk because they are media savvy. They have no interest in doing proper interviews, but only interested in using you to promote their films and promote their careers.
Q. Would this kind of television mean more on the softer genres, like lifestyle? No, the one that I am in talks with Star is a serious one. We only did the lifestyle kind of for Discovery.
Q. We believe the new series of that would be on air soon... The new series of that should be shown across all of the Discovery Asia soon; it has an Asia focus. They are hoping to sell it to Travel channel, which is their parent in America. If that happens, then the next would be more international than Asian. But the reason that I did the Discovery show was because they were the only people who were willing to say, ‘do a show that is based on ideas, take your time and we would put the money in it’. If a serious channel would have come forward and done that, as Star World now has, then I would be happy to do the show.
Q. So, there are three shows that are happening at the same time... No, I think NDTV Goodtimes will be on the air first, then Discovery, and then hopefully, Star World.
Q. But it is perceived that news programming also comes with the influence factor, which you wouldn’t get in any other kind of programming... There is the chance of becoming a celebrity anchor, which I did for a long time, Frankly, now it bores me. I was doing television before that too, but the breakthrough for me was 1997 with ‘Questions and Answers’ on Star Plus. The show had a live audience and debates that I moderated. Then in 1998-99, we started ‘Star Talk’, which was an interview-based programme. Doing the same thing 10 years later suggests that you have not grown at all. It is easy to do, but what is the point?
Q. When INX News began, things were looking so positive and energetic, and then it all changed so suddenly. What went wrong? I have asked myself the same question God knows how many times. We were on target for launch; we really had an enviable team and very good consultants. It is easy to say now in retrospect, because I would never be called on this, but I reckon we would have done a channel that made a difference. However, suddenly I leave and there are unpleasant incidents involving my deputy, incidents with the Minister, and I think over 100 people left soon after. How it all faded so quickly and went so badly still remains a mystery to me.
Q. Do you watch NewsX these days? I never watch NewsX.
Q. So, what is it that you want to do now? Television that is less superficial. To explain that, television sometimes can be a superficial medium; how much can you do in a 20-minute conversation. I am now interested in doing programmes that require more time to make; that tell stories and deal with ideas… at the end of which you have learnt something. I have done the kind of television where you sit on a desk and encourage people to shout at each other and say it is conflict; or persuade someone to tell their secrets. I have done that. What I am looking at right now is a slightly more ambitious kind of television, which unfortunately requires more time and more money, and that is strenuous.
Q. What is the NDTV Goodtimes show about? It’s called ‘Made to Order’ and is about India’s ability to craft things. It is about individual experiences. The show on Discovery Travel & Living would be a food and travel show based in Asia. We haven’t got a name for it yet. The Star World show is still in early stages. At the moment, it would be a show that reflects the new India. Star is very conscious of the debt that it owes to India. I think it is very eager to do something that shows off India to the rest of the world.
Q. You are probably one of the very few journalists who has worked in print and TV simultaneously. Usually we see professionals focus on any one of the mediums... I have always seen my television career as being quite distinct from my print career. When I was the editor of Hindustan Times doing editorials on the matters of state, I was quite happy interviewing Priyanka Chopra on television; I wouldn’t have perhaps done it for HT. Many people in print go to television to extend what they are doing in print. I never saw it that way. I always saw my TV career very distinct and very different, and it has continued that way.
Q. It’s been more than a decade since you have been a face of television. How has the space changed? The television that I was doing earlier, which was interview television, was the easiest thing in the world. When I was shooting ‘Star Talk’ for Star, we used to shoot three to four episodes in a day, and then I was free for the next three weeks. I remember once we went to Mumbai for ‘Star Talk’ and in one day we shot Kajol, Karishma, Zeenat Aman, Anil Ambani and Madhuri Dixit – all in five hours – and then I was free for the next five weeks. Whereas running a newspaper, which is what I was doing then, was really a torturous task. In the old days, television was actually very easy. You just had to go and talk to somebody, you would get reasonably paid and the programme would go on.
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