Karan Thapar

Karan Thapar
Thapar at The Doon School.
Born (1955-11-05) 5 November 1955
Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir, India
Education The Doon School
Pembroke College, Cambridge
St Antony's College, Oxford
Occupation Journalist, News Anchor
Years active 1979 - present
Notable credit(s) Devil's Advocate
India Tonight
The Last Word
Face to Face (BBC)
Hardtalk India (BBC)
To the Point

Karan Thapar (born 5 November 1955) is an Indian journalist and a television commentator and interviewer.[1] He was associated with CNN-IBN and hosted The Devil's Advocate and The Last Word. He was also associated with India Today and hosted the shows To the Point and Nothing But The Truth.

Early life and education

Karan Thapar is the youngest child of former Chief of the Army Staff General Pran Nath Thapar and Bimla Thapar. The historian Romila Thapar is his cousin.[2]

He is an alumnus of The Doon School in Dehradun and the Stowe School. While at Doon, Thapar was the Editor-in-chief of the school magazine The Doon School Weekly.[3] He graduated with a degree in Economics and Political Philosophy from Pembroke College, Cambridge in 1977. In the same year, he was also President of the Cambridge Union. He subsequently obtained a doctorate in International Relations from St Antony's College, Oxford.

Career

He began his career in journalism with The Times in Lagos, Nigeria and later worked as their Lead Writer on the Indian subcontinent till 1981. In 1982 he joined London Weekend Television in the United Kingdom where he worked for the next 11 years.[4] He moved to India in 1991 and worked with The Hindustan Times Television Group, Home TV and United Television before setting up his own production house in August 2001, Infotainment Television, which makes programmes for amongst others BBC, Doordarshan and Channel News Asia.[5]

Currently, the President of Infotainment Television, Thapar is noted for his aggressive interviews with leading politicians and celebrities.

A few of his shows which have been much watched are Eyewitness, Tonight at 10, In Focus with Karan, Line of Fire, War of Words Devil's Advocate and The Last Word.[5]

In April 2014, Thapar quit CNN-IBN to joined India Today. There he hosted the show titled To the Point and Nothing But The Truth.

He also writes for The Indian Express a leading Indian daily as a columnist. On 21 April 2017 he had written an article named "The Mysterious Mr. Jadhav" in regard to death sentence given to Mr Kulbhushan Yadav an alleged Indian spy. [6]

Awards and accolades

  • In 1995 Thapar won the Onida Pinnacle Award for Best Current Affairs Presenter for the programme, The Chat Show.[5]
  • In December 2003, Thapar became the first person to win both awards in the current affairs category of the Asian Television Awards.
  • The Best Current Affairs Program for an interview with Pakistan's Foreign Minister, Khurshid Kasuri tilted Court Martial
  • Second award for 'The Best Current Affairs Presenter' for his popular long-running BBC series Face to Face.
  • 'Best Current Affairs Presenter' award for his interview with Ram Jethmalani on Devil's Advocate
  • In 2008 his show Devil's Advocate was conferred 'Best News/Current Affairs Show' by News Television Awards & Karan Thapar was presented the award for 'News Interviewer of the Year' at Indian News Broadcasting Awards.
  • In April 2009, Thapar was conferred with the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award and was chosen the 'Journalist of the Year(Broadcast)'.
  • In August 2009 he was adjudged the "News Show Host of the Year" by Indian News Broadcasting Awards.
  • In March 2010 Devil's Advocate was accorded an award for being the "Best News Talk Show" by News Television Awards.
  • In December 2010 he was adjudged the 'Best Current Affairs Presenter' by Asian Television Awards.
  • In March 2011 Devil's Advocate was adjudged the "Best Current Affairs Programme" and Karan Thapar was declared the "TV News Anchor of the Year-English" by National Television Awards.In October 2013, Karan Thapar won journalism award.
  • In December 2013, Karan Thapar received the International Press Institute-India Award for excellence in the field of journalism.[7]

Books

  • Face To Face India - Conversations With Karan Thapar, Penguin, ISBN 0-14-303344-1
  • Sunday Sentiments, Wisdom Tree, ISBN 81-8328-023-4
  • More Salt Than Pepper - Dropping Anchor With Karan Thapar, Harper Collins, ISBN 978-81-7223-776-9
  • Devil's Advocate: The Untold Story, Harper Collins, ISBN 978-93-5277-985-7

References

  1. ↑ The two faces of Mr. Modi
  2. ↑ "When the Devil's Advocate has the Last Word, he is anti hindu". Retrieved 25 January 2016.
  3. ↑ History of the Weekly, The Doon School publications (2009) p.41
  4. ↑ "Madhu Trehan interviews Karan Thapar on his book "Devil's advocate"". News laundry. 30 July 2018.
  5. 1 2 3 "Karan Thapar - Infotainment Television". Infotainment Television. Retrieved 25 April 2014.
  6. ↑ "The mysterious Mr Jadhav". The Indian Express. 2017-04-21. Retrieved 2017-05-19.
  7. ↑ "Karan Thapar wins journalism award". The Hindu. 7 October 2013. Retrieved 25 April 2014.

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