Women's Day Spotlight: India's Iconic News Readers That Paved The Way

These news readers of India have been nothing but iconic as they graced our screens everyday during the golden era of 80's and 90's. As if Doordarshan wasn't iconic enough for being the first Indian TV channel, these ladies added up to its importance.

Nowadays, we see a lot of female news readers of India reporting from all sorts of situations from public rifts to cyclones and storms. While risking it all and being fearless is a part of journalism, females have never backed off from taking up these challenges. The foundation of such fearless ladies behind the news forums was laid back in the 80's and 90's by some of the great female news readers of that time who are still an icon for everyone and who set an example for all females to pursue their ambitions of journalism and made the society aware of their confident presence.

8 Iconic News Readers Of India

Pratima Puri

Doordarshan was India's first TV channel and Pratima Puri was Doordarshan's and India's first ever female news reader in history. A graduate from the Delhi University, Pratima started her career at the All India Radio of her hometown. She became a part of DD in 1959 and became a news anchor when the channel launched its first ever news bulletin programme. This inspiring news anchor interviewed some of the great politicians and personalities of that time including cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.

Salma Sultan

One of the most iconic news anchors of all time on Doordarshan, Salma Sultan was popular for her signature style of wearing saree by draping it around her neck. She always tucked a red rose behind her ear to complete her traditional yet modern look when she appeared on news bulletins. She was a Doordarshan news anchor for a whole 30 years, from 1967 to 1997. She later became a director for many Doordarshan serials including Suno Kahani, Jalte Sawal and Panchtantra Se.

 Salma Sultan 

Rini Simon Khanna

Rini Simon Khanna was a young talent who started hosting programmes from the age of 13. In 1982, she began her career as a news caster for the All India Radio. She also worked with with the state run Doordarshan for a remarkable period of 16 years, from 1985 to 2001. Rini then moved on to providing voice overs for feature films, advertisements and documentaries. This iconic journalist is the voice behind the Delhi Metro announcements.

RIni Khanna Simon

Manjari Joshi

Manjari Joshi was another household name who could be seen anchoring news bulletins wearing a neat pleated saree with her sleek bun. The news anchor from 90's worked for Doordarshan before directing her focus towards studying Russian. She later on went to translating Russian to Hindi and English and also teaches journalism to students.

Avinash Kaur Sarin

Another one of Doordarshan's prominent news readers of those times, Avinash Kaur Sarin started her career at Doordarshan in 1979 as the news anchor of science based show, Vigyan Patrika. Once she did not appear on news bulletin due ti health issues after which fans flooded the Doordarshan head office with letters demanding her return. Popular for her large bindi and hand woven sarees, she also directed documentaries and is now an official member of Doordarshan's panel of directors and producers.

Neethi Ravindran

This news anchor had a unique and commendable voice that can easily be recognised by anyone. She worked for Doordarshan as a news reader and also gave voice over for various documentaries, short films and TV programs. She gave voice over for the Ministry Of External Affairs's award winning documentary titled Fifty Years of India’s Independence. In 1997, she was one of the few Indian anchors that covered the news of Mother Teresa's demise.

Neelum Sharma

Neelum associated herself with Doordarshan in 1995 and worked as a news anchor there for a period of 20 years. The iconic news reader was one of the founding anchors of the first Indian TV channel and was also been awarded the Nari Shakti Puruskar. She anchored the Doordarshan show titled Tejaswini, where she used to interview some of the great women achievers of that time. Neelum was also a documentary filmmaker, she died in 2019 due to cancer at the age of 50.

Shobhana Jagdish

This iconic anchor's face and style was known to everyone from the 90's period. Shobhana Jagdish's name might not be familiar to everyone but her charismatic presence, nice and well-draped saree and sleek bun was enough to grab everyone's attention. Her face and style of presenting news was familiar to everyone of that time.

Suggested Reading Secret behind the spotlight: Television anchors and their nutrition calendar