These were the mid-90s, the early days of cable television in India. People who had grown up on the staple diet of ‘Chitrahaar’ suddenly saw a whole new format of film songs on TV.
This was a brand new bollywood songs countdown show, modelled like the Billboard top 100 show in the US. The show was called ‘Public Demand’ and it came from the TV-18 stable.
TV host, RJ and actor Roshan Abbas started his television career with the show. His co-host was Mahima Chaudhary who went on to become a popular Bollywood actor.
In the book, Network 18 – The Audacious Story of a Start-up That Became a Media Empire, Roshan Abbas shares the experience of his television debut and how at times he used to work for months without getting paid just because TV-18 was like a family to him.
Network 18: The Audacious Story of a Start-up That Became a Media Empire, published by Portfolio Penguin, was launched in September 2016 as a hardback. The paperback edition of the book is now out in bookstores and is also available online.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)