Ch Sushil Rao

The most unusual interview I did was with George Fernandez

By Ch Sushil Rao

Read

1 Comments

Read More Add comment

A memorable meet with Queen Elizabeth's husband, Prince Philip during his visit to Hyderabad

By Ch Sushil Rao

Read

1 Comments

Prince Philip is the one to meet. Royalty he is but is not too much of a stickler for protocol. The 97-year-old Duke of Edinburg, husband of Queen Elizabeth of England, caused an accident while driving his car a couple of days ago. He’s back behind the wheels and was photographed driving his car again. I recall the time, I met him when he was in Hyderabad.

Music wafted in the air. Mandolin Srinivas created magic as we sat down to listen to him weave magic on his instrument on the lawns of Jubilee hall in Hyderabad . The concert for the small gathering was organized for Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburg one evening when he was on a visit to the city in 1997. He had come to India with his wife, the Queen of England, Queen Elizabeth. While the Queen went about engagements that had been fixed for her, Prince Philip had programmes to attend in three other cities, including Hyderabad.

Having some idea about the royalty and the protocol, it was only expected that the Prince would at the most spend a few minutes at the very formal event. But Prince Philip seemed to enjoy the evening with the lilting music of U Srinivas. There suddenly was some commotion among the officials. Departing from Protocol, the Prince had expressed a desire to meet all the artistes who had performed and also the motley group of people who had been invited for the occasion.

I was there as a reporter and it did come as a bit of a surprise as we informed that the Prince Philip would walk down to where we were sitting. Just so that there would be no commotion, the officials while conveying the desire of the Prince, asked all the artistes who were with mandolin Srinivas, to be gathered at a particular place on the lawn, not far from the dais that has been put up for the day’s cultural performance.

Meeting Prince Philip that day turned out to be interesting because he had been informed that it the evening’s programme was a ‘formal event’ and that meeting or talking to Prince Philip was out of question. Prince Philip who was 76 years old then, not only enjoy the classical music concern but he expressing a desire to meet the guests of the evening, left a great impression on everyone who came. Protocol officials cautioned the group of people against extending their hand to shake hands with the Prince but, of course, if he chose to, they could. And the Prince did choose to mingle freely with the gathering, shaking hands with some but with a genuine smile all through.

Prince Philip is known to be a man with a great amount of humour and the informal manner in which he interacted gave me an insight into another side of the British royalty.

Read More Add comment

Breakfast with Chiru

By Ch Sushil Rao

Read

0 Comments

“How about having breakfast together tomorrow?” Chiranjeevi asked me. I jumped at the idea. The one thing I cannot forget is having 'Chiranjeevi dosa' at the megastar's house.

You get it at Chutney's if you ask for it. It is also called a steam dosa. But when it was introduced in Chutney's they got the recipe from the actor himself and named it after him. There was a time I visited Chiranjeevi's house frequently - at least once a fortnight. This was because he used to write a column for TOI and I would sit with him about that. "I'm inviting Sushil over for breakfast tomorrow," he told his wife Surekha one day after our meeting at his residence. “Of course yes,” she said.

Practically every film star who Chiranjeevi is close to has had the 'Chiranjeevi dosa' at his house. I had it with non-veg that he personally served along with it and the taste can get as good as it gets every time I am reminded of it.

Chiranjeevi was once shooting for a film in a village in Karnataka several years ago. He happened to have breakfast from an eatery and immense liked the dosa that was made there. Chiranjeevi recalled when he asked the eatery owner for the recipe he refused to give it to him. Back home in Hyderabad, Chiranjeevi who could not forget the taste, sat down with his wife and decided to discover the recipe. He described the taste to her and in due course, after experimenting over a few times, he finally got the 'original taste' that he so much wanted.

Chiranjeevi may have discovered a 'recipe' but he is a self-made man. He narrated to me how he worked on getting into films and how he carved a niche for himself. On the sets, I've noticed that he makes it a point to encourage everyone who merits it. At a fight sequence that he was shooting at the University College for Women at Koti, he appreciated the fight master and the fighters shooting with him for what was an important fight sequences.

I must recollect an incident I was witness to when we drove from Koti to his house at Jubilee Hills. I was sitting with him in the car and he noticed something amiss on the road. Just before we had arrived there, it appeared that an accident had taken place.His private security personnel were following him in another car. Chiranjeevi had noticed an accident in which a person had got hurt and was bleeding. It was not clear how the accident took place but he saw that the man fallen on the road was bleeding. On his instructions, his security personnel shifted him to a hospital and also helped him financially. His family was also informed about what had happened to him so that they could come and take care of him.

On another day, I was travelling with him in his car from his house to Ramoji Film City. Somewhere along the way, he kept looking out of the car window. I had not noticed anything that required so much of attention. I remained quiet until he decided to take our conversation forward. “Aren’t the flowers beautiful?” he asked me. The trees in the road median were in full bloom and they had caught his attention. I take that road everyday but never did I give a second glance to those trees. He noticed the trees and the flowers and loved the beauty of it. “He’s been to many beautiful places in the world and would have seen much more to appreciate. How would these few trees have caught his attention?” I wondered. But that opened my eyes. There is so much of beauty in front of us but do not quite take the time to appreciate it.

There was already speculation at that point of time about his possible entry into politics. “Will you join politics?” I asked him. “What do you think of the idea?” he asked.

Read More Add comment

Why I profusely apologised to Manmohan Singh

By Ch Sushil Rao

Read

0 Comments

Manmohan Singh was coming to town and I had planned to meet him. Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao had done something out of the box. He had appointed Manmohan Singh who was not a politician as finance minister. PV became prime minister in the aftermath of the death of Rajiv Gandhi. Considering that Manmohan Singh had a chequered career as as economist, even having served as RBI Governor and advisor, economic affairs, to Prime Minister V P Singh, Narasimha Rao decided Manmohan Singh would be the right candidate. He had also served as RBI Governor.

Manmohan Singh was coming down to Hyderabad for a visit to attend a closed-door official meeting. But before he got down to business in the city and would become unreachable, I kept track of his arrival from Delhi to Hyderabad. Like all VVIPS, he would stay in the Lake View Guest House. I confirmed it with the staff. The regular flight at Begumpet airport would have landed, I presumed and called up the guest house. "He has not come in as yet," the staff told me. Within a gap of five to 10 minutes, I called again. "He has not arrived," was the response. I decided I should have a word with Manmohan Singh on the phone first and then rush to meet him wherever he would give me time that day. "But the flight has already arrived. Has he still not come in?" I questioned the Lake View Guest House staff after having checked with the airport. The Lake View Guest house staff were polite. "Sir if the flight has come, he should arrive in here any moment. I will certainly put you through to him," a voice at the other end said as I called once again.

Within just a few minutes, I called up yet again. The person who took my call at the Lake View Guest House slammed down the phone. How could they do that to me? For the last one hour, I was trying to speak to the finance minister and just at the right time, the guest house staff hung up the phone on me. They had recognised my voice. This behaviour was completely unacceptable to me. I called up again immediately. I was furious and I wanted to show my anger and displeasure in my voice itself. If all the while I had spoke in a friendly and informal manner, this time I decided to be firm and if that was being harsh, I decided to sound as harsh as I could.

This time there was no 'hello'. I decided there would be no niceties. How could they have hung up on me the previous time?

With a voice that meant business, and the tone harsh and bordering on the impolite, when the guest house staff picked up the phone again, I said: "Put me to Manmohan Singh."

“May I know who is speaking?" the voice at the other end asked. This time, I was even more annoyed.

It was as if I was calling up for the very first time and they did not recognise my voice. I refused to identify myself again.

"Put me to Manmohan Singh. Just do what I say," I said bluntly. "But can I know who is speaking?" the voice at the other end requested. "Just put me to Manmohan Singh," I demanded. "This is Manmohan Singh. Can I know who is speaking?" was the response from the other end.

Polite in his speech, Manmohan Singh did not lose his cool despite my harsh tone. But I hardly expected him to pick up the call. It was supposed to land at the reception and then they would have had to connect me to his room.

Since I had called again, the staff had recognised my voice and had directly put me through to Manmohan Singh's room after he arrived. The call had got disconnected. When I called up again, they had done the same thing, putting me through to Manmohan Singh directly.

I was apologetic to Manmohan Singh for the way I had spoken to him. There was no time to explain the whole story to him but when I requested for time to meet him for an interview for the newspaper, he informed that he was to leave by the first available flight back to Delhi after a meeting in Hyderabad. "We can meet the next time I come to Hyderabad," he said.

Never got to meet him again as finance minister but as Prime Minister of India, I covered a few functions which he attended in Hyderabad. But I will carry my guilt of having spoken rudely to him.

ReplyForward

Read More Add comment

I said he said it. Marri Channa Reddy insisted he did not say it.

By Ch Sushil Rao

Read

0 Comments

It practically was Chief minister Marri Channa Reddy versus reporter Sushil Rao. It was whether his words could be believed or I could be trusted. Was he right? Or was my report authentic? The question now was about how it could be ascertained. My report, I insisted was factual. Channa Reddy’s contention was that it was not. And so began an exercise to ascertain who was right.

Marri Channa Reddy said spoken something but for reasons I could easily understand chose to deny it. And I was at the receiving end for allegedly concocting a report.

Channa Reddy addressed a meeting of party leaders and workers in Ranga Reddy district. "I am not here as chief minister because of anyone’s mercy,” he had declared at the meeting. Nothing wrong with that. But the timing of his saying that was more important. The manner in which he said was even more important. The context was all the more important. This was sometime in 1989.

There had been some talk that not all was well between him and the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. From what Channa Reddy spoke at the meeting, I was told the next morning that Channa Reddy had denied what I had reported in the newspaper. What was I to do? I was sure he said it. It was there all over in my notes. There was no television at that time. There was only Doordarshan but they had not come to cover that programme. I insisted Channa Reddy had said just what I had reported. The reason that he wanted to deny it, as it was clear to me, was that it sent out a wrong signal to Rajiv Gandhi. In political language, it was undermining the authority of Rajiv Gandhi. So, some internal controversy had begun.

Reporters from other newspapers too had come to cover the chief minister’s meeting. However, none of the reports that appeared in other newspapers had the point which I felt was important and reported. Were they all wrong and only I was right? Was Channa Reddy wrong and only I was right?

The onus was now on me to prove that he had said what he had. I remembered something. I had seen somebody record the speech in a tape recorder. It was a huge tape recorder - perhaps a two-in-one - and it registered in my mind that it had been kept on a table there and the speech was recorded. That was the evidence. There was enough of it on tape.

I asked that they listen to the tape to verify my report. This was enough. No further questions were asked on the authenticity of my report.

Read More Add comment

What "NTR Kathanayakudu" did not show - the telephone call he had with me

By Ch Sushil Rao

Read

4 Comments

“Nenu NTR matladuthunna brother (This is NTR speaking),” the voice at the other end informed me. It was him. The phone had rung and I picked it up. I’d stayed back late at office on December 31, 1994 and this call came on the direct line. When NTR identified himself on the phone, I was surprised. I was sure it was him but the call from chief minister Nandamuri Tarakarama Rao came as a surprise. NTR had come back to power in the 1994 elections with a big majority and had taken oath as chief minister for the third time on December 12, 1994.

“Noothana Samvathsara Subhakanshalu,” NTR continued wishing me a happy new year. I wished him back. The conversation lasted for less than 30 seconds. But that set me thinking for the next 30 minutes on why NTR chose to spring a surprise on an unsuspecting journalist to convey personal wishes. But NTR had not actually called to speak to me personally. He had simply called to wish whoever was available at that time in the office and it happened to be me in Deccan Chronicle where I was working at that time. There were no mobile phones then. The CM’s office had the direct number of the reporters and NTR chose to make a call himself. But before, he came on line there was a piece of quick information that the “CM wants to speak” by someone who had dialed the phone for him.

There were only a few newspapers then and N T Rama Rao had called up all the newspapers to wish everyone a happy new year 1995.

But I’d known N T Rama Rao to be a man who could spring surprises all the time. Some were intentional and others could be incidental because you wouldn’t expect them.

One of my first assignments when I became a journalist was to cover a programme at the Mahavir Harina Vanasthali deer park near Vanasthalipuram in 1989. Chief Minister N T Rama Rao inaugurated a van for the public to go around the park. We sat at the function area where he was to come and address the gathering. The entire crowd comprising visitors, invitees and officials stood up as he arrived on stage. The press gallery stayed put - sitting as he waved to the crowd. It looked like NTR was surprised. Even angry. How could that motley group of people not rise when I am greeting them? The thought would have crossed NTR’s mind repeatedly. The gaze on the press gallery moved no one.

Reporters are not the crowd. They rise only when the national anthem is played or sung and not when VVIPs take to the podium. That’s been the tradition, the culture and norm that has been preserved by the fourth estate till date. It isn’t just about NTR. It can be any CM, PM, or President. No one is to applaud when a VVIP speaks. No one nods in agreement or disagreement. All one does is jot down notes of the speech. This is what I did that day. But NTR made no sense. Nonsense is a strong and objectionable word to use. He spoke. And spoke. His chaste Telugu could hardly be followed by anyone. There was no clarity in the delivery of his speech too. He was as if he was incoherent. But he was chief minister. And I, a reporter.

Not paying attention might result in a ‘major miss’ if he were to make any big announcement. I had my gaze fixed on him. Ears were glued to what he said. And at the end of it all, he still made no sense for me to go and write about what he spoke. I was working for Citizen’s Evening then. But I noticed the crowd raving about his speech. They lauded him. Applauded him. They shouted and screamed. The crowd and NTR were made for each other. There was hardly anything in NTR’s speech to report. You couldn’t carry all that repeated rhetoric in a newspaper. Going to cover the chief minister and that too someone like NTR and not being able to report a thing about the event would only reflect on my own capability of deciphering the man.

With NTR you can expect the unexpected. That much was for sure. The interesting thing that happened there was something else that we did not get to see. At the deer park, NTR got into the driver’s seat in the van and drove around in the reserve forest in the path that had been created. The van was also meant for visitors to be taken around to see the deer, black bucks, peocock and birds in the park. NTR driving the vehicle was news for that time. He’d done many films including ‘Driver Ramudu’ and ‘Adavi Ramudu’ and here he was living up to his cinema titles! Needless to mention, we went with the headline with a play of words from these two film titles.

With NTR around, it could not have been a dull day and it wasn’t!

But one day, at the chief minister’s office in the Secretariat, I happened to sit beside him when he spoke with reporters. The handful of journalists that we were covering the CMO could shoot questions at him and he would never be offended. The more aggressive the question, the more he would be at ease, smiling at the anger that he noticed in some senior journalists who were elder to him in age. This particular day, the conversation continued for some more time after everyone had got up from their seats. I stood up too after NTR got up. Since another question was popped to him by someone, he stayed back to respond. And for the next few minutes he rested his right hand on my left shoulder as he spoke. That was heavy!

You went to the programmes that chief minister N T Rama Rao attended also because he could spring a surprise doing something you would not imagine. He did it. One day, much to everyone’s surprise he showed up at a function dressed in saffron and wearing a headgear as Swami Vivekananda. I rushed to the nearest house phone in a star hotel. I requested that I be connected to the phone line of my office.

Like on many other occasions, this too was not about what he would speak at the function. He’d already had his say with his attire and that was the news for the day. Later, I also found out that he had hurt himself on one of his feet but that was secondary. That day, in Vivekananda’s attire, NTR made news not just in AP but the media across the country could not help but take notice of a CM who always had something up his sleeve to keep the media engaged NTR was like a breath of fresh air. On the political horizon, he introduced colour - a colour that was himself.

But NTR could spring a surprise with his decisions too. The press corps of the Secretarariat was at its allotted room. It was noticed that civil liberties leader K G Kannabiran who came with other civil rights activists and some left parties had gone to meet the CM in his chamber in the adjacent building.

No sooner, the telephone rang in the press room. It was a call from the CM’s office. N T Rama Rao had expressed a desire to speak to the media immediately. We walked over to his room. “I am announcing lifting of ban on naxalites,” he said.

That was a surprise announcement. Naxalite violence had been a major concern. What also had been of concern was the encounter deaths of naxalites. Policemen too had been victims of naxalite violence. And here was NTR who had announced a lifting of the ban on naxalites.

From what was gathered then, the CM had consulted no one on taking that major decision. He did not consult his cabinet colleagues nor did his officials have any role in the unilateral decision that he took. How would a CM take such important decisions on the spur of the moment?

It turned out later that officials counselled N T Rama Rao on what repercussions the decision he took and announced would have. His secretary at that time Jaya Prakash Narayan had a word with him. By evening, it was informed to the media that there was a revision in the decision. The ban was lifted partially and with a lot of conditions. NTR could have had his way as chief minister but this instance showed that he could also be advised against any hasty decision. But what mattered most was that he should be convinced.

Read More Add comment

Subscribe to: Posts ( Atom )

Ch Sushil Rao

The most unusual interview I did was with George Fernandez

A memorable meet with Queen Elizabeth's husband, Prince Philip during his visit to Hyderabad

Breakfast with Chiru

Why I profusely apologised to Manmohan Singh

I said he said it. Marri Channa Reddy insisted he did not say it.

What "NTR Kathanayakudu" did not show - the telephone call he had with me

Recent Posts

Facebook

Search This Blog

Blog Archive

Labels

Report Abuse

About Me