As Rajdeep Sardesai embarks upon a different role as an entrepreneur too, he insists that his forte is journalism and that it will remain so. Though through a PR agency, Sardesai and his NDTV colleague, Sameer Manchanda, today morning clarified that they are setting up a new company, a start-up, which was first reported by Indiantelevision.com, he’s still hesitant in talking about his new innings.
Even as he tries to play with a straight bat, like his illustrious father
Ask him about the new company and he gives a seemingly evasive reply. “We haven’t decided whether we want to be only a content company, servicing different channels, or whether we want to start or set off a channel of our own. That’s a decision that we have still left for a later day,” In his first interview to the media after leaving NDTV and shaking hands with the Raghav Bahl-promoted Television Eighteen group, Indiantelevision.com's Manisha Bhattacharjee tries to pin down Rajdeep on some issues relating to his work, his future and the industry in general.
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What is Broadcast News all about? |
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So, are you saying that you would be looking beyond servicing a particular news channel or channels from a group? |
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What are you looking at with the kind of expertise that you have -- a channel or a boutique, which would offer new programmes? |
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How would you get to decide or know what will garner audiences for you? |
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Why would it take this long? Haven’t you decided upon a date? Well…because, we need to get it right that’s why! |
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How do you define your place and role in Broadcast News? |
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Does this signify that your role as a journalist will continue even as you acquire shades of an entrepreneur? |
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How would you go about getting the manpower that is in short supply? Would you resort to poaching from existing channels like TV Today and NDTV? |
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Now that you have parted with NDTV there may be people who would like to follow and join you? It has been an emotional decision breaking away from NDTV. So, the last thing I want to do, at the moment, is to think about NDTV. I just want to create for myself, and for the people who join me, the best possible company -- editorially and professionally. It is only when we decide what sort of company we would like to become that we’d take decisions on manpower and the type of people that we’d like to have. |
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What is the shareholding pattern in the new company? |
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What would be the quantum of TV 18’s holding? |
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Are you looking at a foreign strategic alliance? |
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Will MSNBC be brought into India by your company as TV-18 also has an association with the parent company? |
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What would be Sameer Manchanda’s role in the new venture? |
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Reports have identified that you would kick off a channel by 15 August or by Diwali. What’s your take? |
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You have been quoted as saying that you’d like to launch a journalistic driven channel. What exactly do you mean? |
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So are you saying that the likes of Aaj Tak, Zee News, Star News or NDTV are not working on these lines? |
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Are you looking at doing business of providing content in multiple languages? |
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If your new venture does not materialise or proves to be as successful as you had envisaged, would you route back to NDTV? I will say with a sense of fulfilment that after 11 years, NDTV has become India’s leading news company. When I joined NDTV there were 13 employees. Today, it has grown and employs over 1,000. In my own small way, I have contributed to that growth and I would like to believe in that. It is emotional, but that is the limited satisfaction that I still have. I will never forget what the Roys (NDTV promoter Prannoy and wife) did for me and also for journalism over the years. |
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Before you embark on your new innings, what is it that you would most like to do? |
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Where are you off to? |
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