HYDERABAD: Hemanth Paranji may not be a very familiar face in Hyderabad, but his roots here keep bringing him back to the city. He comes from a family of media professionals (While his brother Jayanth Paranji is a movie director, his other brother Sumanth Paranji is a broadcast media professional.). Hemanth chose to tread his own path in the media. He did start out in films though, as an apprentice to director Shyam Benegal in 1985. Now, as the freelance editor of ABC and CBS television networks, he has been at the centre of all the newsroom drama in New York. He was recently nominated for the Best News Editor award by the Emmy Awards Committee for 2015 for a news story titled ‘Crash of Delta Flight 101’ aired by CBS on ‘CBS News This Morning’.
On a personal visit to Hyderabad, Hemanth reminisces how it was another tragedy which won him a previous award. “In 2000, when I joined Time Warner Cable News as a news editor, I was working in the overnight shift and then 9/ 11 happened. No one was allowed to get into Manhattan, so the other editors could not make it to the station. I was the lone editor and working for 72 hours, I never slept and kept on editing. A month later I got an award for outstanding achievement during a crisis; that’s definitely something that I am not proud of, because of the colossal tragedy,” he recalls and adds with a smile, “Any time there is a disaster; I edit and take an award. I wish I can edit some nice stories.” Hemanth was also given the Edward Murrow Award consecutively for two years by Radio Television Digital News Association USA. Having stayed much in the US, Hemanth talks about the changing media scene. “Now that social media has taken over, people get their news from the internet. It is more web-specific. Nobody wants to switch on and watch television for news. TV is more for entertainment,” he points out. He is amazed at the television revolution in India but feels the channels also bring forth their stance. “In ’91, there was only Doordarshan. Now there are like 460 channels. Many of the news channels here, especially the English ones. seem to be adding their own colour. I don’t see anything that is neutral. Tell the audience and let them decide what they want.” he explains.
Doesn’t this happen in the West too? “It might happen but not much. A news anchor might sometimes have a different kind of presentation but otherwise they are neutral. Because once they get categorised as the prejudiced channel, the viewership goes down. Of course, you have Fox News that is totally Republican and then MSBNC that is totally Democratic. They are funded by corporations that take sides,” he points out. With all the buzz of US elections, between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, who does he think will win? “Trump has rubbed women voters on the wrong side. He has called them names and of course the immigrant community will also never vote for him. I feel that Hillary might win and Trump might be just vocal,” he opines.
