| “Hard work and Commitment is the mantra of success in life”. |
| JOURNEY PREVIEW |
 Film making was a family business which helped me to follow footsteps of my father Thom Sebastian, thus enjoying a short period of four years in Malayalam film industry. These four years in film making made my foundation strong which was to help me in the years to come. My next stop was Delhi. People often ask me, Why you left Chennai and South Indian film industry? And the answer is destiny. Destiny forced me to leave my home town for Delhi, which was to be my home for rest of my life. In 1985 there was only one TV channel, Doordarshan and not much was happening in TV production but lot was happening on the political front. I got an opportunity to work with Jain Studios as chief director for the political films. It was a life time experience to work with leaders who have played a role in developing India. I would like to say that it was an honour to work for leaders like Sh. Charan Singh, Sh. Rajiv Gandhi, Sh. Devegowda, Sh.V.P Singh, Sh. A.B Vajpayee, Sh. L.K Advani, Sh. Ajit Singh, Sh. Ramvilas Paswan, Sh. P.V Narsimha rao, Sh. Bal Thakery, Sh. N.T Rama Rao, Sh. Devi Lal, Sh. Chanderashekher, Sh. M.M Joshi , Rajmata Vijaya Raje Scindia ,Sh. Kamal Nath and Sh. Pawan Bansal. I also produced and directed many medical films and video magazines for Jain Studios. After 5 years of making medical and political films, one day I decided to quit, starting something of my own. |
| TALASH OF A NEW BEGINING |
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Change is only constant in life and I was looking for change rather I was hungry to do something new and my talash (search) ended with Talash. In 1991 the Satellite TV industry was at a very nascent but growing stage. Only one source of Information, DD News. People wanted to know more. In the midst of political and International turmoil I started a video magazine Talash, which was in Hindi and was well received by people. |
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| south asia’S FIRST cable news service |
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By the time I winded up Talash cable TV in Delhi had started spreading its wings and TV industry was all set to witness a revolution, Cable TV revolution. I gave NCR, another programme to quench their thirst for news by producing Delhi Diary Cable news, which was both successful as well as controversial. Some episodes were banned because of their volatile nature but never the less it was very satisfying. |
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| INDIA’S FIRST NEWS AND ENTERTAINMENT CHANNEL |
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As I have already mentioned that 1991 was the turning point in India’s Television history which saw Zee TV launch with Star TV and entry of International Channels in the Indian skies. By 1994 one more player was ready to enter the market and it was JAIN TV. These were my early days in broadcasting or rather I would say it was a new beginning in television industry. At that time UPLINKING was not permitted from India thus JAIN TV was beamed from Russia all the programmes and news were produced in Delhi and sent to Dubna (Russia) on daily basis. I still remember working in subzero temperatures for election telecasts in Dubna non stop for 48 hours. This election telecast gave an icon to media industry, Sh. S.P Singh. I would like to mention here that music countdown produced by me were pioneer for others to follow. BPL Music Mania, Philips Super 10, Rasna Song Meri Pasand, Videocon Top Tucker, Symphony Bollywood, Ajanta Quartz New Hits and Close-up pattuvilayattu were well acclaimed shows produced and directed by me. The entire flow of the channel was planned and executed by me and my team. |
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| EXPLORING MUSIC |
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My last tenure in JAIN TV brought me close to the music world as I had produced lots of music based shows. This I decided to explore the world of Indian music little closely when I joined ATN as Sr. V.P - Programming where I got an opportunity to design and execute music based programmes. Here also I introduced LIVE programmes from Singapore. |
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| MANAGING THE GROUND NETWORK |
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In 1998, Siti Cable was the largest cable distribution network of India and I got an opportunity to be Director, Programming and was responsible for the all India Programming of Siti Cable. My short stint here gave me an in-depth knowledge about the working of Cable networks |
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| BACK TO JAIN TV |
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In 1999 I was called back to JAIN TV for a re-launch. This was the period which was about to witness another change in the industry which being an ushering a new era of News Channels. Next five years were my toughest in terms of working and learning. Competition was tough and to survive a big infrastructure was required. I did the entire planning and designed the FPC and of course, the programming mix also. These five years saw many elections and I have no hesitation in saying that election telecasts of JAIN TV were among the best. But I feel sad when I see JAIN TV of today. All the money and hard work of the best team in the industry have gone waste due to some unexplainable reasons. |
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| DELHI’S OWN TV CHANNEL |
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By 2004 consolidation had started in the television industry and was witnessing a sea change in technology and government policies. Another development was going on which was about regional T.V stations. Viewers were demanding programmes in their own language and with local flavour. Almost every state was having T.V stations broadcasting round the clock local language programmes but national capital was behind every one. No one had thought that Delhi having TV station of its own could be commercially viable. But I had this dream to give Delhities something of their own. Since 1991, from the days of Delhi Diary, I had often thought of such TV channel and finally my dream came a reality when I got the opportunity to design and execute Delhi’s first TV channel, S1. I knew that my effort again would be the first one in the series of channels which Delhi was to get in the coming years. |
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| SPACE FOR SPACE |
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As I had said that my ability to explore new things had forced me to do new things. From regional TV channel I moved on to niche TV channel in 2006 which was christened SPACE TV. As the name suggests it was all about space i.e. about Real Estate, Lifestyle & Tourism. This is again the first one in its genre. From past two years I have worked on a format which the industry has never seen. A round the clock channel for real estate industry. |
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| uni tv |
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There are about 150 odd news channels in India; only the top 10-15 channels have the wherewithal to have a direct presence in the regional states. Constant demand for a reliable source of news feed often result in sourcing it from expensive video news services or piggybacking on local stringers delivering questionable content. This situation was only made more difficult by the constant need for the audience to stay abreast of daily events. Keeping this in mind, I sought out to redesign broadcasting by including all mediums of telecast – TV, Radio, IPTV and Mobile TV. |
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| Jai Maharashtra (Marathi News Channel) |
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Instrumental in getting a telecast license and the technical design of the channel. |
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| ONKAR - Only truth (Bengali news channel) |
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A Bengali News channel located in Kolkata. Designed, Integrated and launched the channel in a record 60 days time. |
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| JIA News (A national news channel) |
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2013, Spearheaded a new entrant into the TV industry - Airan Consultants and launched their Hindi National News Channel - Journalist In Action (JIA) News. Revolutionizing news reporting, JIA News is an attempt to channel international standard news content to the local audience in Hindi, as well as deliver hard-hitting factual stories from the heart of India. Its acclaimed style of reporting aims at bringing credibility back to content. |
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