Dressed in crisp saris and with their hair and make-up done up elegantly, these female news anchors were an epitome of grace, style, warmth, and composure. It has been more than a decade but it’s hard to forget those anchors who kept us updated with all the latest events and current affairs. Those were the days when only two channels, DD1 and DD2, were available on the idiot box. Looking back at old photographs of the news anchors of the 90s always brings back a sense of nostalgia. In the late 1960s, the group of young women had become synonymous with television news. Among them were Salma Sultan, Rini Simon, Aiyar, Usha Albuquerque, Manjari Joshi, Sarla Maheshwari and Neelam Sharma. Way before the cacophony of panel discussions, we had news readers who were polite and had their own individual style. In the current scenario, anchoring is all about aggression and screen persona.
Let's take a walk down memory lane and see if you can still recognize these faces which graced our television in the 80s-90s.
Salma Sultan
Sultan worked as an anchor in Doordarshan for 30 years from 1967 till 1997. Known for her signature rose tucked under her left ear in her hair she was one of the leading news anchors of her time. The Doordarshan director of the time initially found it a little out of place and she was told to not wear it again. She complied by not wearing the rose the next day. But after few days when she appeared without the rose, there was a flood of protest letters. She moved to direct serials on social topics for Doordarshan and went on to direct Panchtantra Se, Suno Kahani, Swar Mere Tumhare and Jalte Sawal.
Avinash Kaur Sarin
Known for her characteristic large Bindi which went on to become a rage with 1980s women all over India, Sarin started as an anchor of a science show, Vigyan Patrika, on Doordarshan in 1979. She went on to become one of India's most popular news anchors of the 1980s and 1990s. During the 1984 riots in Delhi, Sarin was unavailable for a month due to health reasons. Millions of letters, including one from the President's House, started pouring into the Doordarshan head office in Delhi enquiring about her well-being. This was a precedent of sorts in the history of television at the time.
Manjari Joshi
Joshi charmed the viewers of the 90s with her style and impeccable diction. Eldest daughter of famous Hindi Poet and journalist Raghuvir Sahay, Sarin later went on to learn Russian language, literature, and civilization and started off her career as a conference interpreter. Currently, she is occupied with training and teaching of television journalism.
Neethi Ravindran
Neethi Ravindran had a unique voice which was easy to recognize. She was the one who presented the news of the death of Mother Teresa in 1997. She's also the one behind 'Fifty Years of India’s Independence', an award-winning documentary made for the Ministry of External Affairs.
She has given her voice to many documentaries, TV programmes, short films, advertisements, and innumerable international programmes.