September 20th, 2008
Interview with NDTV-Hindu

This evening, the NDTV-Hindu crew came home to do a shoot for their tech show titled ‘Byte it’. It’s the soon-to-be-launched TV channel in which NDTV has a 51% stake and The Hindu holds the rest 49%. It was originally named Metronation Chennai but I think its new name ‘NDTV Hindu’ is far better as it draws upon the strength of two well entrenched brand names. I’m told it will be a Chennai centric channel with content being on the lines of NDTV GoodTimes, Profit & News combined.

We fixed the interview time at 4PM but I came in 45 minutes late, making the crew wait. Got stuck in the previous training and as luck would have it, traffic had to get real bad. After profuse apologies and locking away my pesky kids inside the room, we began the shoot.

One of the episodes was on writing for the web with an intention of making money and the other one was on the browser shoot-out with focus on Google Chrome. We nailed it after a few retakes.

Few interesting observations. Those focus lights were absolutely blinding. The first few seconds were actually painful and my eyes began to well up. It took a while before I could get used to the sheer brightness. If that wasn’t enough, the lights were producing a lot of heat and worse, the fans had to be switched off to cut down on ambient noise. I began to sweat almost instantly and had to wipe the sweat every few minutes.

TU Dinesh is the host and the producer of the show and it was heartening to see him again. Just a few years ago, I first met him as a student when I went to guest lecture at the Madras Christian College. He stood out from the crowd then with his enthusiasm. From a student to a trainee at Indian Interacts to his current role at NDTV-Hindu, that’s quite an appreciable climb.

I’m told that the new Channel is aiming for a pre-Diwali release. Will get to know the date and time of this episode’s telecast as we get closer towards the launch.

And oh, the next time, I should clean up my book shelf. Didn’t realize it was this messy.

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18 Responses to “Interview with NDTV-Hindu”

  1. Vasanthan says:
    May 22, 2009 at 3:56 AM

    it must be a proud moment.
    i kinda like the show, cos they present things to the point with little about the bush around. let us know when u will be on air.

  2. Bala says:
    May 22, 2009 at 3:57 AM

    will be great to c u on a show.. why not host a weekly one? btw metronation delhi is becoming a very good channel in Delhi. Nice to hear they are coming into chennai.. Do let us know when ur show comes on air..

  3. Srivatsan says:
    May 22, 2009 at 3:58 AM

    Hope i get the channel in the cable itself as free to air. i ain’t got any dish. Lets hope it to be a different news channel.

  4. Kiruba Shankar says:
    May 22, 2009 at 3:58 AM

    srivatsan,

    I can check with the NDTV-Hindu folks if its a paid channel or a free one. My gut feeling says that it should start off as a free channel.

  5. Kiruba Shankar says:
    May 22, 2009 at 3:59 AM

    Hi Vasanthan, I’ve never seen Metronation Delhi, so will never know how tight their show is.

    I’m told that this particular episode might come in a little after Diwali. I have requested the host to provide me with the video that I can host it on YouTube or Vimeo and give a link from the blog.

  6. Kiruba Shankar says:
    May 22, 2009 at 3:59 AM

    Host a show? Would be nice and should give some serious thought to it.

    Cheers, Bala.

  7. Anitha says:
    May 22, 2009 at 3:59 AM

    Congrats!!!

  8. Shravan says:
    May 22, 2009 at 4:00 AM

    Congrats!! This is the first time you’ve been b4 these lights???

  9. Dhruva says:
    May 22, 2009 at 4:03 AM

    NDTV “Hindu” sounds like RSS arm of NDTV :) .. lol :)

  10. wilson says:
    May 22, 2009 at 4:04 AM

    NDTV-Hindu I think they are going to rock !!
    Thank you for the post

  11. Krishnan says:
    May 22, 2009 at 4:04 AM

    Congratulations ! Looking forward to the new channel to hit Chennai airwaves soon.

  12. Gigih says:
    May 22, 2009 at 4:05 AM

    hello how are you? visit my blog..

  13. Karthick Gopal says:
    May 22, 2009 at 4:07 AM

    Nice haircut.

  14. Sri says:
    May 22, 2009 at 4:07 AM

    Oh yet another interview! Man! After Obama..Kiruba is the most interviewed or interviewer…to be frank..I didnt even read your blog..fed up with interviews..update something interesting and leave interviews for a while…

  15. AJAY says:
    May 22, 2009 at 4:07 AM

    just waiting to to c u in the air

  16. Nikhil Narayanan says:
    May 22, 2009 at 4:08 AM

    Kiruba,
    Congrats!
    Metronation , the Delhi one I have seen it on Tata Sky. Weird funda:accessing it “by pressing red button” on the remote.

    Wonder why that is not available in the main list of channels.
    Hope NDTV Hindu is not side lined like that.

    -Nikhil

  17. >>Jass<< says:
    May 22, 2009 at 4:08 AM

    Thats cool man! So what was the bottom line ? Firefox?
    Google has a different point of view though, it just wants people to adopt to v8 i guess.

  18. Srivatsan says:
    May 22, 2009 at 4:08 AM

    Getting NDTV Hindu channel in my cable as free from 2day. There were some nice programs and a tech show byte IT

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