The first voice on Telugu Doordarshan, Shanti Swaroop, fell silent on Friday morning at a city hospital. “Ee roju vartala lone mukhya amshalu (Highlights of today’s news)”, was one of the first sentences heard on Doordarshan on November 14, 1983, at 7 p.m. where he began with narrating the news about the then Chief Minister N.T. Rama Rao attending the Children’s Day celebrations at LB Stadium in Hyderabad.
In the absence of teleprompter at the beginning of broadcasting revolution, he would memorise the news and read. “I would memorise the news like math tables and read so that I don’t have to glance up and down on the written paper,” he had said during one of his interviews after he moved away from the medium. The result for the viewers was one where he appeared as if he is weighing his words before delivering them.
He was predeceased by his wife Roja Rani, also an anchor on Doordarshan, who had begun her career as a child actor in Krishna’s movie Thene Manasulu in 1965.
