This bank officer travels many a mile for a rendezvous with viewers, and to inform them of the happenings across the globe. And he has been doing this for nearly a quarter of a century.
A manager with Andhra Bank, Vedantam Seeta Ramachandra Murthy has been reading news on Doordarshan since 1991. Hailing from Pavara, a small village near Kakinada, V.S.R. Murthy joined the bank as a clerk in the late 1980s and then began chasing television in what was then a hobby.
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“I wanted to read news on television, and DD was the only avenue then. I would go, pester staff there, sit down, watch and study the seniors. My perseverance paid off when I was given an opportunity for a nine-minute live Assembly review in September 1991, and it was followed by a break to anchor news,” he recalls.
Those were the days when the teleprompter was yet to become a popular accessory, and newsreaders would read out from typed sheets.
“A lot of thought and planning would go into reading news, for every pause had to be nuanced with the script in advance,” he recalls.In his long association with DD, Murthy presented more than 9,000 news bulletins and some remain etched in his memory – like the moment he informed a stunned audience about the demise of former Chief Minister N.T. Rama Rao.
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Wherever he is posted by his bank, the eager newsreader continues to keep his tryst with Doordarshan for at least six to seven assignments a month.
Presently, he is posted as manager of Andhra Bank’s Macahram village branch in Jadcherla, and whenever he is listed by DD to read news, he drives down to the city after office hours and is ready to face the camera before the countdown.
T. Lalith Singh
V.S.R. Murthy, a manager with Andhra Bank, has been reading news on Doordarshan for nearly a quarter of a century