Doordarshan’s first Telugu news presenter Shanthi Swaroop no more

HYDERABAD: The doyen of Telugu news presentation in Doordarshan, Shanthi Swaroop, breathed his last at the Yashoda Hospital here on Friday after suffering a heart stroke couple of days ago.

An alumnus of Osmania University (1964-70), Shanthi Swaroop read his first news bulletin on Doordarshan on November 14, 1983, without the help of a teleprompter.

He retired from the public broadcaster in 2011. He is survived by his wife and two sons.

“I was shocked and I am in sorrow. He was the first person I met when I joined the Doordarshan. He was kind and gentlemanly,” Malladi Sailaja Suman, former Deputy Director General of All India Radio told NewsTAP.

She said that Shanthi Swaroop used to translate script given in English directly from news agencies and read them in Telugu that too on live without a single mistake. She recalled that she used to call him ‘brother’ and he encouraged her during her stint at the Doordarshan Kendra in Hyderabad.

“ I met him at a function organised by Narumanchi NRI Radio a month ago. That was my last meeting with him,” Sailaja Suman said.

BRS chief and former Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao condoled the death of Shanthi Swaroop. He said that Shanthi Swaroop had made a mark in news reading during the initial days of Telugu television.

Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth in a condolence message said that Shanthi Swaroop was well known to Telugu people as the first news anchor in Doordarshan. He remembered his services to the Telugu media and offered his heartfelt condolences to his family