India TV is not sensational, it’s public service.

It’s definitely a role reversal. The man who has grilled several eminent personalities in his ‘adalat’ is on the other side of the dock now, facing a barrage of questions to which he replies with candour. Rajat Sharma, chairman and editor-in chief, India TV, might be on unfamiliar territory, but in this interview with Tuhina Anand of agencyfaqs!, he talks with ease and sincerity.

Sharma was editor of several print publications before he ventured into television. In a short span, he has managed to bring his company, Independent News Service, to the level of a mainstream news channel. This surge ahead can be attributed to Sharma’s credibility and courage in bringing news as and when it happens to his viewers. The channel, which is known for its sting operations, has had its quota of controversies, but Sharma is not deterred by this. He is determined to go ahead with his journalistic endeavours. The future of India TV is intact with Sharma as its leader, and he talks of how the news channel is attempting to coopt viewer information and be a news channel driven by people...

Edited Excerpts

One is never satisfied with one’s performance or the viewership one gets. The silver lining is that India TV is the only channel that has hit the top on at least 10-12 occasions in the last one year. And it has not been just because of one or two stories.

Whenever we have done a good show, we have managed to reach the number one position. It only goes to prove the point that India TV has the potential of being in the top slot. So, I am satisfied that India TV has proved this point at least a dozen times.

It’s true that initially, there were rapid fluctuations in India TV’s viewership. But ever since we started with our three-hour weekly show, ‘Breaking News’, this fluctuation is happening less often. This definitely is a challenge. But we are confident and working towards retaining the top slot.

I think so. Gauging from the kind of response we get from our viewers, I would believe that the channel has managed to be among the consideration set. For five days since we broke the ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati 2’ (‘KBC2’) story, I can say that we received a phenomenal response, be it through SMS or e-mail. Similarly, when we did the story on how the Nigerians are duping people, it got a tremendous response. Getting feedback from viewers, be it positive or negative, matters.

We have also started asking our viewers to send in information or videos and the response we have got is overwhelming. This only goes to prove that people are watching the channel.

The gap is there because the first four channels, Zee News, NDTV India, STAR News and Aaj Tak, have been there for more than five years, while we are just one year plus. When these channels entered the market, it was not so competitive. We entered at a time when the market was really competitive. Even so, India TV has been successful in making a place for itself. We were able to hit the top of the slot several times. It only shows that we have the potential of being at the top.

There isn’t a single instance when India TV has done sensational journalism. We have always refrained from it and will continue to do so in the future.

It all depends on what one calls sensational. Whatever we have done has always been for a purpose and in the public interest.

No, I would not. While covering the MLA story, we censored all the sensational portions. Had we not done that, people could have called us sensational. The purpose of the story was to let the world know about the deeds of politicians.

In that context, Shakti Kapoor was a much larger issue. I still maintain that it was a public service story. It was an eye-opener for many young girls who landed in Mumbai with stars in their eyes.

I will give you a small example. If Shakti Kapoor was having an affair with someone, or what he does with his wife in his bedroom – all that is nobody’s business. But if he is using his position to lure someone, then I think it is in the public interest to let the world know about it. So, it varies from case to case.

One has to draw a line somewhere and it’s the editors who need to differentiate between a public interest story and a sensational story.

Had our stories been sensational, we would not have received more than 70,000 messages in one day, most of them supporting us. Similarly, even on the ‘KBC 2’ story, we got a tremendous response from the public, saying that they felt cheated.

We have replied to their legal notice. We have also sent a legal notice to STAR, Sameer Nair and other people for defamation. In an interview to ‘Mumbai Mirror’, Deepak Segal said that everything that happens at India TV is a scam. He has also lied blatantly that India TV never got in touch with STAR before doing the story. We sent two letters to Nair and a third to Peter Mukherjea. We have acknowledgment of those letters, with Mukherjea even saying that he would get back to us in due course. If they lie so blatantly, then we have no option but to take legal action.

Going regional definitely helps. We are looking at the Gujarati and Punjabi markets because these two also have international reckoning. Punjabis and Gujaratis are spread all over the world and, wherever they are, they would want to see the news in their own language. So, these are the two markets at which we are looking. We will probably have a 24-hour Gujarati news channel in the next six months and Punjabi in another nine months’ time.

As far as India TV is concerned, we can say that we are not competing with the GECs. Others might be doing that in order to retain their position. I am first a journalist and then a businessman. It’s juxtaposed such that I am the editor and also the owner. But the fact is that, for me, journalistic values are definitely more important. I am convinced that this is what is going to take us forward. India TV is different from other channels because our channel enjoys trust and credibility with the people. And this is something that is long lasting. Sensationalism in a half-hour show or personal relationships are temporary. We are looking for a longer relationship with the viewers.

Yes, I completely agree with you. ‘Breaking News’, Flash’, ‘Exclusive’ – all these words have lost their sanctity. A press conference can never be breaking news. But when we call our show ‘Breaking News’, we definitely break at least one story a day. When we say this is a breaking story, either we break stories or we give a new dimension to existing stories. For us, that is breaking news.

No if the news is actually breaking, you should call it that. Let us leave it to the viewers to decide what they accept as breaking news and what they don’t.

As far as India TV is concerned, we don’t pass off anything and everything as breaking news. If there is something major that needs to be brought to the viewers’ attention, we call it a news flash. If there is something really big, then we call it breaking news.

If there is a big story, then we normally share it with ‘Mid-Day’ in Mumbai. It is not a tie-up, but an understanding. Once in a while, we also have an arrangement with the Bhaskar group of papers. It helps because to my mind, television viewers and newspaper readers are two different segments completely. And it is important for newspapers to get into the television market and for TV to get into newspaper. So how I get my stories known to the readers is by having them published in a large circulation newspaper.

News channels all over the world are anchor driven. It’s the anchor who gets identified, but the anchor’s backbone is content. You can’t have an anchor with no content. If an anchor is leading good content, it gives weightage and this is how it is done all over the world.

You can say that, initially, it was only me, but now there are at least three others – Sudhir Chaudhri, Abul Nasr Iqbal and Roopa Saxena. And we have six others. Within six months, we will build a battery of presenters who will be as good as I am. We are really working hard on it.

India TV is not just about Rajat Sharma and it should not be perceived in that way. It has taken me several years to reach where I am. And I am sure others will reach faster than I did. All these years of doing STAR News and NDTV, Prannoy Roy could only create Barkha Dutt and Rajdeep Sardesai. And Prannoy (Roy) does not anchor very often, so that way, one can say NDTV is only about Barkha. The positive side, if you see, is that no other Hindi news channel, be it STAR News, Aaj Tak or NDTV India, has any known anchor either. At least India TV has one recognised face, so it puts us in an advantageous position.

Maneka Gandhi had her political problems, so could not continue. We tried Tarun, but it seemed that he was better cut out for print rather than for TV. It did not work out. I picked him up because I thought he would be a valuable resource, but I think he preferred to write books and newspapers rather than do TV. TV may have been too demanding, it takes too much of your time.

Right now, we have our hands full, so we are definitely not thinking of diversifying. When I said entertainment, I was stating a five-year plan. That’s a little far away.

I think it’s a changing India, an India that’s getting younger. The young generation is getting interested in news and they are interested in the subjects of the modern age. I have noticed that people now want to know more about the economy, business houses, airlines, computers and mobile phones.

I think it’s a lazy reporter’s job because it’s easy to do a glamour story. I am not saying that people don’t want to know about glamour or cinema and you don’t get to watch glamour and entertainment on India TV, but there are other sectors such as an auto expo, where we go out of our way to cover it.

You cannot give a single example of news being trivialised on India TV. Other channels might be doing it and I am no one to comment on that, but India TV doesn’t.

India TV will break even in the next three months’ time, I mean break even operationally. Why will there be pressure from investors when everything is going as per the plan? We did not plan that India TV would break even on day one. Any channel takes time.

There are channels that have taken five years to break even. In two years’ time, we will be able to break even and we are heading towards that. When we started, we got 17 brands of advertisers for the channel; in the month of December 2005, we had 80 brands; the number of advertisers went up from 17 to 68.

We believe in hard news with speed and fewer features. News as and when it is happening. It is the only Hindi news channel that is anchor driven. India TV is the only channel that has interactivity with the viewers and is directly in touch with its viewers for 24 hours. We get information from viewers and we use it. All our big stories have come to us from our viewers, be it the Govinda-Dawood story, the Iskcon temple being demolished in Moscow, or tigers being electrocuted in the forest of Madhya Pradesh. We have worked hard on them – that’s a different thing. At least two or three stories in ‘Breaking News’ comes from the viewers. At India TV, people dictate the news and this is something being done all over the world.