Some people recall the faces and some people recall the names. Here are images of some of the famous readers and presenters of Doordarshan down the years. If you recognize any of them, leave a comment. Update 1: Most of the faces now have names thanks to helpful comments by Update 2: Included image of one of the earliest presenters, Gopal Kaul. Send in generously from personal collection by son, Ashutosh Kaul.

• Trishna Serial Doordarshan

Sept, 2010. Major Update 3: Got a tip-off about a documentary about the famous faces of Doordarshan from the makers of “The Golden Trail, ” from which these caps were taken. I managed to catch the incredible documentary and am adding some more faces/name and part of the docu here. New ones can be found after the image of Narotam Puri. 30th Oct, 2010.

@Sunil i actually needed a lot of help for this one. In fact, some of the face at the top (interestingly Male) still remain unidentified.

@Ramesh the images here are just caps from Golden Anniversary DD special. Maybe it's time i add images of other presenters too.

TV in India was a late bloomer but thanks to Doordarshan, it never got boring for us. It had all the fun, drama, entertainment and value education that we could never learn from the Saas Bahu sagas of modern age. Here’s a list of 18 completely awesome serials from Doordarshan that were a part of. Get complete list of DD1 TV shows along with schedule and show timings. Get daily updates on popular DD1 TV serials, news. 26-year-old reality star.

It's interesting that you mentioned Rini Khanna Simon. In the images above i misidentified Mukta as Rini Khanna. Rini Khanna joined Doordarshan back in 1985. Here's a I didn't know she's the voice for Delhi Metro. How about that!

@Wordsmithy Even I was a kid back then. I read Salma Sultan started wearing the rose quite late, only in the 80s. Thanks for recommending the book! Will try to get my hands on it. Bearded guy in khadi- Anant Bhave.

Charusheela Patwardhan was a news reader, so was Dolly Thakore.then there were Vishwas Mehendale, Sabira Merchant (What's the Good Word? Programme), Kamleshwar with 'Parikrama', Tabassum with 'Phool khile Hain Gulshan Gulshan), Baban Prabhu, Yakub Saeed. And there were a great range of producers like Vinay Apte, Vinayak Chaskar, Dr. Kiran Chitre, Akashanand (Dnyaandeep programme which became a social movement with Dnyandeep Mandals formed in many places: he expired a few months ago), Suhasini Mulgaonkar (Sundar Maaza Ghar). The list is endless. Refer here for more: http://aparanjape.wordpress.com/2009/06/29/mumbai-doordarshan-circa-1970s-the-black-and-white-tv-era/.

Archana Malik Wowww. This was really amazing. What a journey down the memory lane! It was so nice to see all wonderful n pioneer faces in the world of media again during our childhood, after ages specially when they were all so young n in their hey-days! Thanks to all who have compiled this page though I could not find the person I was looking for here. Yes, DJ the lady after Manoj Raghuvanshi is indeed Veena Mishra.

If anybody knows the name of the lady who's appearing these days in the serial 'Bade Achhe Lagte Hain' on Sony TV as a language teacher working with 'Priya' pls post ur information here and enlighten us. She was one of the presenters on DD if I'm not mistaken. And I agree with what Sandeep Kowaldkar wrote abt Shammi Narang.

N smiled at it! Don't forget the rose flower always tucked on the side in Salma Sultana's juda! Bic You have missed one very sophisticated English News reader's mention, who was a regular on Bombay's (Mumbai's) English News, in the 70's thru to the 80's. His name is Viren Luther, a very handsome and gentlemanly man, with a striking mustache.

Luther later went on to become the Executive Director of Film Festivals, and Director of NFDC (National Film Development Corporation.). So you can see, that you clearly missed his name in your list of Bombay's English News readers. Please add his name, and I can provide the photo if you want. Anonymous The only time I have seen Doordarshan handle a Western classical music concert with finesse and knowledge of music was when Sita Nanda produced a symphony concert conducted in Mumbai by Zubin Mehta. Zubin Mehta thanked and congratulated Sita Nanda afterwards and more so because she had stayed on like a true professional even after she got the tragic news just before the concert that her mother had suddenly died. That is what I call true professionalism and it came from Doordarshan’s own staff. Ramu Damodaran deserves another mention.

One of the best readers of the english language. And I don't just mean doordarshan. He could have hosted the news on any channel, even BBC or CNN. After news reading, he became a member of the Indian Foreign Service where he held the post of Executive Assistant to the Prime Minister of India, served Indian diplomatic missions in Moscow and to the United Nations, and held assignments in a range of other governmental ministries. He is now the Deputy Director for Partnerships and Public Engagement, Outreach Division, Department of Public Information in the UN (United Nations).

This is a real achievement and deserves to be highlighted. Here is a youtube clip of the man speaking flawless english http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tm5Sp0pKypk. I'm so glad you put this up. Every night, I go to my folks place for dinner and dad invariably tunes in to those 24.7 news channels.

All I can hear is cacophony. A riot fest on prime time. Maniacal news anchors, uncouth mud slinging guests, baroque and absolutely crass music cues. It made me miss the simple no frills approach that DD had adopted. I'm using 'had' because that channel was long forgotten. On a hunch, I tuned in to DD News and there they were again. The anchor had changed of course but the reporting was similar and more importantly, it was genuine reporting.

Trishna Serial Doordarshan

Dignified and peaceful. The viewer could actually watch the news. Sometimes the old ways are the best.

Yes - Before satellite TV took over DD particularly its New Readers charmed each and every Indian. To name a few may be injustice to others. Today DD storm completed 55 years. As I remember the Galaxy of News Readers - Rini Simon, Shammi Narang, Salma Sultan, Neethi Ravindran, Manjari Joshi, Komal GB Singh, Usha ALbuquerque, Ramu Damodaran, Sunit Tandon, Gitanjali Aiyar, Minu enthralled viewers with their neat appearance, perfect presentation.

Given an opportunity I would like to see them all again on DD. May be a wishful thinking. But what a great contribution by all these luminaries. A big thanks to them all and DD.

Stumbled on this blog just now, while surfing for info on my favourite newsreaders. I believe Ramu Damodaran was considered a child prodigy who later graduated to News and abruptly left DD. Where is he now, if you know? Also, where do I get some recordings/videoclips of the best among newsreaders from All India Radio - Melville de Mello, VM Chakrapani, Roshan Menon, Shurajit Sen, Lutika Ratnam, Sushil Jhaveri Pamela Singh, JV Raman and many more. Pl dont say try AIR - they are of no help!! I found a few blogs which take you back almost 50 years to the vintage times of All India Radiio and DD India!! I saw this beautiful post on 11 Feb 2016.

We had a TV since 1965, a time when there used to be only 1 hour program (from 6.30 to 7.30 pm) followed in the end by 'Jan Gan Man Adhinaya jay hey'. We were so greedy to see moving screens, that we all used to get up straight and even watch that 56 sec song completely. The program used to start with a ten minute monotonous whistle, when they showed only the AIR logo and there used to be a whistle. After 10 minutes it used to be followed by a different sound and logo and then the narrator appeared on the screen.

I could recognize all faces especially Pratima Puri and Mukta Srivastava. Mukta used to read listener's letters while another male person (I am forgetting his name) used to answer. I missed Kewal Kumar who used to appear in a comedy program 'Aisa bhi hota hai'.

Long after 1965 when we bought TV, there used to be a CHitrahaar every Wednesday, when they showed only 4 songs. This was liked by all and sundry very much and there used to be discussions on those 4 songs for the next week.

The whole neighborhood used to come to our home for that one hour TV and I remember my mother cleaning the floor after they had gone, of all the pea nut shells which they used to spread. He put a cigarette in his mouth and, as a matter of silent routine, offered one to Gwyn, who said ‘No thanks.”Richard looked at him.”I packed it in.”'You what?”'I stopped. Three days ago. You just make the life choice.” Richard looked up and inhaled needfully. He gazed at his cigarette. He didn’t really want to smoke it.

He wanted to eat it. Almost the only thing that he still liked about Gwyn was that he still smokedParadoxically, he no longer wanted to give up smoking: what he wanted to do was take up smoking. Not so much to fill the little gaps between cigarettes with cigarettes (there wouldn’t be time, anyway) or to smoke two cigarettes at once.

It was more that he felt the desire to smoke a cigarette even when he was smoking a cigarette. The need was and wasn’t being met While it would always be true and fair to say that Richard felt like a cigarette, it would now be doubly true and fair to say it. He felt like a cigarette.

And he felt like a cigaret.Updated with corrections pointed out by, author of some incredible book on Yodeling including Yodel-Ay-Ee-Oooo: The Secret History of Yodeling Around the World.0- 's brother Anoop Kumar, who we basically know for the line ' O manu tera toh hua ab mera kya hoga', used to own lots of Austrian music records. And from these records, Kishore Kumar picked up the art of Yodel singing, an art perfected in bathroom and then introduced by him to the world of Hindi film music. According to his biography 'Kishore Kumar: method in madness‎ ' by Derek Bose, 'Kishore was a fan of the Swiss singer. an Australian cowboy born in New Zealand who sang in the gene autry / Jimmie Rodgers style and the Australian., perhaps the most American and one of the most famous yodelers in the world, famous for his blue yodels as well.' Although most of these songs by Kishore Kumar are thought to be '.

We have numbers of channels and countless TV programmes now but all we really do is channel surfing. Apart from few Paksitani serials on Zindagi, not even a single daily soap can be compared to Doordarshan serials of those days. I bet you remember most of the shows that you used to watch during your childhood.

All those serials, be it Hum Log or Udaan or Malgudi Days, were crisp, had good content and most importantly were not never-ending like the daily soaps we watch nowadays. Many of us would love to watch those serials again not just to relive those old days but also because they offer a better TV viewing experience than all that we are forced to watch today.