Even after a quarter-century or thereabouts of television interviewing, Karan Thapar‘s competitive edge has far from dimmed. In his weekly column in the Hindustan Times (whose failed TV venture Home TV he helped set up in the 1990s), Thapar takes offence at the Indian Express and Mail Today for not crediting him for an interview…
Tag Archives: Devil’s Advocate
The curious case of Karan Thapar and a flyover
One of India’s top voices, Lata Mangeshkar, earned a fair bit of negative publicity for opposing the construction of a flyover on busy Peddar road in Bombay because it threatened to disturb her peace of mind. Now, one of India’s top TV faces is threatening to follow in her footsteps in Delhi. On July 29,…
‘I have a poor opinion of most media people’
The Press Council of India (PCI), a statutory body for “preserving the freedom of the press and maintaining and improving the standards of newspapers and news agencies”, has a new chairman: Justice Markandey Katju, a former judge of the Supreme Court of India. In an interview with Karan Thapar for CNN-IBN’s weekly programme Devil’s Advocate,…
Why Karan Thapar stopped haggling with God
Karan Thapar has a well-cultivated image of a tough, snarling, bulldog of a interviewer a la Jeremy Paxman. All the aggressive, relentless questioning and eyeball to eyeball gazing with the crooked and the wicked of the world might leave viewers wondering if the man has a heart at all. But the Devil’s Advocate has a…
From the desk of Shri Quick Gun Chidambaram
The Union home ministry under Palaniappan Chidambaram has been markedly different from that of his predecessor Shivraj Patil‘s. Gung-ho, proactive, media-savvy. The minister himself pops up in chosen English TV studios now and then. The home secretary G.K. Pillai dashes off corrections, clarifications and assorted complaints. Sometimes, Chidambaram himself shoots off a letter to the…
Since promises are meant to be broken…
… India’s premier television anchor Karan Thapar makes one in his Hindustan Times column: “This year I’m taking on a bigger challenge. I’ve decided to give up interrupting my guests. Instead, I shall let them waffle and drone on, regardless of what they’re saying and how off target they may be, till you, the audience,…
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