DARWIN, NEWS TV, AND RAJESH SUNDARAM

Rajesh Sundaram joined TV Today a couple of years after me; by then, after toying with the idea of weekend programming through Auto Shows, features and news-specials, I had been assigned to produce a daily evening show called ‘Ground Zero’. It was designed to be an OB Van based half-hour with reporters around the planet, mostly mixed live in the PCR, on contemporary issues, including political and social daily-quips.

Then, and in ‘Inside Story’ after that – we often did what could be called South Asian conflict stories. Rajesh was in assignment, and an expert in those stories. Talk about LTTE, or the Maoist insurgents in Nepal, or Baloch rebels – he was our go-to person.

His long stint in Al Jazeera might have prepared him for this ‘niche’ beat – but I do have my doubts that he covered these stories because he liked them, personally.

*A few glimpses from his field-reporting stints. On the left, with Prachanda, the Maoist supremo from Nepal; and on the right, at the LTTE headquarters, Kilinochi.*
*I picked these up from his now defunct blog.*

All of this was 10 years back. I was young; Rajesh was younger.

Over the years, I have learned to respect him for his resilience and ability to adapt to the ever changing world of TV News, and this blog is about that.

While quite a few of my journalist friends couldn’t cope up with the changing news-scenario, he not just continued, but thrived. He never stopped being relevant.

After a five odd years stint in TV Today, brushing up his managerial skills – he became part of a Team in New Delhi that set up News Nation. Then he went off to South Africa to set up ANN 7, came back and became part of the consultative process for Rajasthan Patrika Television, then took up a project in Chennai called News7 Tamil, followed by a brief stint of consultancy in Delhi, and back to Chennai, to set up Cauvery News.

When I met him a couple weeks back, he was stationed in Mumbai, setting up Lokshahi, a Marathi language news Channel. Lokshahi came up in a record time of just about three and a half months; it launched on 26^th January this year.

Rajesh says it’s doing well – as of now.

Over a cup of coffee, I took the opportunity of asking him about the impetus behind this unusual career-arc. Apparently, he doesn’t think it was unusual. It was all a survival-technique. It’s the fittest that survives in News TV.

TECHNOLOGY HAS TO MEET EDITORIAL DEMANDS

“I started off as a reporter and then I started taking on managerial positions. In Television you can’t be a good Manager unless you understand the technology. That’s what I did.

I didn’t try to understand the perspective from an engineer’s perspective, since I am not a trained Engineer. But mostly, as an end-user, how as a journalist would I desire the technology to be. Because oftentimes what happens is, the people who are planning technology for a TV Station are not the journalists. But the people using that technology are journalists. There has always been this mismatch.

So my job in setting up these stations is to create a workflow with an intimate understanding of technology. So that it’s smooth and the rough edges are cleared out – and this comes with an end users perspective.

The editorial process has to be understood. There should be factual correctness. There should be multiple stages at which a script is cleared – has to be an automated process through which this happens. Those are the elements you know as a journalist – which technology enables you to implement, which is what I do.”

With A R Rahman, during his News7 Tamil days. With another of our former colleague Denzil, in extreme right.
Picture Courtesy moviegalleri.net

If I understood it right, Rajesh identifies emerging trends in the processes of news-gathering and news-dissemination – and combines this newly acquired and consistently updated ‘funda’ with his innate ‘traditional’ editorial skills.

And that’s what keeps him ahead of others.

Tough call, I must say. Through my own experiences – I would testify that technology changes not every decade or year – but in every few days.

Rajesh adds, it’s not just becoming more efficient – it’s getting cheaper; and that comes with its own set of problems, and solutions.

NEWS PARADIGMS ARE CONSTANTLY CHANGING

“Television is changing. If you look at journalism – it’s changing as well.

What was meat even a decade ago is poison now; and what was considered poison a decade ago is meat now – if you know what I mean.

So clearly, the paradigms at both ends are changing. Clearly, the future is going to be IP driven things, and not the Base-band technology. So unless you evolve and unless you have an active interest in that technology and an acute understanding of it, and also the editorial process – in a purely Darwinian sense, you will become extinct.

And that’s what is happening. I remember, when I was growing up as a professional, I started off my career at the Business World Magazine of the ABP Group. I remember – the photo-journalists there, the camera-team and the camera-men were just as important as the senior-editors. They had a very big role and without them, nothing worked. But, just like TV Stations, even in news-papers now, the breed of cameramen and photographers is disappearing. In that Darwinian sense, an evolution is happening in the newsrooms and there are certain jobs that are disappearing.

There are people who are multi-skilled now. There are reporters that are expected to do their own camerawork; they are supposed to do their own editing; they are supposed to be journalists, of course, but they also have to know how to transmit those visuals. Earlier, what used to be six jobs or seven jobs, including that of the OB Van driver and engineer – is now rolled into one.

So if you are not smart, in the television news business, you will outlive your utility in that system. I think, luckily, I have been smart on that area. Basically I have tried to stay relevant, not get extinct, and not become a ‘DODO’ thankfully.”

Yes, I know what it feels like becoming a dodo.

I remember my early years in TV journalism and the apprehensions it spread among my seniors in print, who were trying out TV. We too were out to do something new then – into a vocation that no-one understood, including our parents. For us, print was so ‘yesterday’ then.

And then, when the TV news-explosion happened I was right in the middle of it – soaking in its warmth. Even there, I have seen seniors from Doordarshan times wilt and wither away in Breaking News TV, and not just because they couldn’t cope to the technology upgrades. They were, simply speaking, outpaced.

And now, TV News, as we know it – is on its way out. Fact is, New Media is pushing everything else out, from everywhere.

I do agree with Rajesh, that nobody in our business of media can be sure of what the future holds for them.

But yes, that shouldn’t stop us from being prepared for it.

ADAPT TO EVOLUTION, OR FACE EXTINCTION

“You know, earlier, there were only the Base-band TV stations; and then there were hybrid stations that had a little bit of IP and a lot of Base-band. Now we are going into a system where at some point it will be 100% IP.

Now what that means is – there would be a total evolution.

What does that mean?

That means the PCR will just be software on computers and you will be using that to broadcast. That means there will be just one computer on which multiple functions can be done.

If you look at the latest solutions – the cost of those solutions are just a few thousand rupees. It takes about a lakh and a half to set up a whole production control room; and the output that you get is just as good, or sometimes even better than what you get from a traditional professional Broadcast station.

I was at the I-league recently, the football league. I was surprised to know that they have an i7 machine with vMix software loaded, and a card – and they were transmitting on Satellite Television – a whole football match out of that. Their Graphics were inserted from an IP system from Russia.

And it was flawless.

So any big PCR would be put to shame by a bunch of two people doing the whole thing with remote support from Russia. Technology today is shrinking what used to be done by an army of people into a team of two people; just one or two multi-skilled people on a laptop or a computer. So that’s the paradigm shift.

Look we know that the dinosaurs were highly evolved creatures, but they couldn’t cope with change. We know that v-mix and similar stuff is only the present – nobody knows the future. All that we know are – there will be lesser and lesser people working on a news-room; there will be more accuracy, systems and processes driven; salaries will go up, but many people will lose jobs; so that is the scenario.

I know lots of colleagues that started off with me, stayed on as reporters, and now nobody wants old reporters.

Unless we adapt ourselves to that process of evolution, which is purely Darwinian in that sense; and you are blind and rigid and you say that I am old-school – technology is going to make you not unemployed, but unemployable.”

In some stations, Rajesh has been the editor-in-chief for the News Director.

He has set up Hindi stations which he speaks fluently; set up English stations; he has been part of teams that have set up Tamil Stations; the station that he is heading right now as a Principal Consultant is in Marathi language.

That’s from his latest venture at Lokshahi – a launch image from his face book wall.
With Rajesh in the middle, we have Vijay Shekhar on the extreme left, and *Rajesh Tyagraj, Shilpa Hegde Matondkar and Monisha on the right.*

So basically, more than the language, it’s about the process. His role is to make sure of the ‘old-fashioned’ rules of journalism about neutrality, about checking the sources and all of that is in place. While Rajesh mostly sees himself as an editorial person, he is also someone who guides the technical team into what the editorial requires.

It’s not always smooth sailing, though.

Rajesh often looks back in annoyance to the times he spent at ANN7 in South Africa. No, not because of the people he worked with – he is proud of the young team he headed there, along with a few more Indian journalists. He is happy of how the channel shaped up in terms of technicalities, in record time.

What he regrets is the Mafia quicksand that caught him there, incited by the Gupta family, key stakeholders of the Channel.

ONE CANNOT COMPROMISE WITH ETHICS

“What I found that there was lot of illegal things happening. There were violations of labor laws; there were violations of Visa laws; and also a very toxic, abusive environment because of the Gupta Family. Of course the world knows about how they are fugitives in South Africa right now and are accused of having run away with billions of dollars of South African Tax-payers money. Money that should have gone into building dairy Farms – they have taken it, and run away with that.

Of course, I did not know about the Gupta Family when I joined the project; but when I signed for it, and got to know, I took a call that as soon as I can set up the Channel, I am going to leave. Because those are things that one cannot compromise on.

One cannot work with the mafia.

I have not just left the company and come back – I have gone all the way with them. In terms of taking them to court, writing a book about them. And whatever I testified in the court, I have given an affidavit to multiple commissions in South Africa which is now being taken as evidence.

So if a prosecution happens in some point of time, I am proud that what I have said as a witness to the meetings between the Gupta family and President Zuma will play a small role.”

((BOX OUT))

*Rajesh testifying in a South African Commission, as News Editor of ANN 7*. *Picture courtesy : SABC News*

Rajesh did want to leave South Africa amicably; He told the Gupta Family about the ethical differences he had with them – and requested to shake hands and part ways; but they insisted that he has a contract, and that he will have to fulfill it; not just that, they let out their bodyguards to prevent Rajesh from leaving – and all that…

Anyways, that’s another story, and a long one at that.

The book that Rajesh wrote reads almost like an international crime thriller – I think you ought to read it. All I would say, it does require tremendous courage to stand against the state-sponsored power-brokers in a foreign country – and survive.

Good thing is, even though Rajesh stood firm against his employers – it never hampered his professional career. He continued getting jobs, and not just because of his technological or adaptation skills.

It’s because the kind of a person he is.

NETWORKING IS MORE ABOUT GIVING

“Lot of people says you are well networked. But I have a theory about it. I believe networking is about giving; it’s got nothing to do about taking.

People who have opened doors for me are people who have worked with me before. Even interns for instance – whom you helped at some point of time. When they come to a position they say – ‘Oh, we know Rajesh, he sets up stations, and so will you be interested…’

They put me through to people who are already impressed with me because these former colleagues have already placed me as a ‘great guy’ – and I have got work.

So yes, I have worked with a lot of people, and contributed in whatever ways I can, and it has come back to me – and I am happy about that.”

I would vouch for that.

Rajesh helps people without blinking an eye – just because he likes being helpful.

I remember – while he was in Cauvery TV, a few years back, he was going through a terrible phase. His liver had stopped working, and even while in dialysis, he was working incessantly to make the Channel succeed.

I was writing a film from MEA then, on Indo-Afghan Cricketing Relations, for my friend Ishani. It was critical that we got hold of Rashid and Nabi – the star Afghan Cricketers who were with the IPL team Sunrisers Hyderabad . I called Rajesh for help, and he promptly put me across to the right people without asking any questions – despite being in great personal crisis.

He is a wonderful person, my boss Rajesh; and a true fighter.

After getting a Kidney transplant from his wife, he is now in the pink of health. His face book updates on the treadmill are a real treat to read; his family pictures with his two daughters are loaded with life and laughter.

His greatest strength is probably his almost infectious positivity.

Rajesh calls it a day, with his signature smile, “I am proud of the work that I have done – especially with the young journalists. I believe that if you get new technology and young people, it works much better than with old people and new technology.

But of course, you are as young as how much technology you adapt, and how quickly you do that. So if there is a sixteen year old who is not on snap-chat and who is not on Instagram, I think I am younger than them; since I am in all those platforms…”

Well that you are, Rajesh Sundaram!! Forever young, and future ready.

And stay so, for our sake, so that we feel young too.

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2 Comments

Sriyug Print Production

Nice article. We appreciate your writing.

# 27th February 2020 Reply
Gautam Bandyopadhyay

Very nice… Through your eyes I am having some insights of the drawing rooms of some other professions and of how people in such professions struggle and thrive… Keep posting…

# 27th February 2020 Reply

DARWIN, NEWS TV & RAJESH SUNDARAM