Arnab Goswami (The Game Changers: The People who Transformed India)

by Vir Sanghvi

‘They would always tell me: don’t put your own views into the story,’

He hated that culture of enforced consensus, he says. ‘I have been a debater all my life, through school, college, everything. I like the idea of people disagreeing and defending their own views. Why should we make them discuss something for just fifteen minutes and then end it on a note of bogus agreement?’

The truth is that the size of the English news audience is tiny. It hovers at around between 0.4 per cent of the total television universe.

There are many days when more people watch a single Hindi news channel than all the English news channels put together.

The real audience consisted of those who understood English but were more comfortable watching a Hindi channel.

What if he could create an English channel which would allow Hindi-speaking guests to join its debates with an anchor who would respond to them in Hindi? What if the anchor would be happy continuing the debate in Hindi without the obvious reluctance and discomfort of the anchors on other English channels?

I ask him about his legendary stamina and he attributes it to a regular life. He can get by on only three hours of sleep, he says, because he doesn’t waste time on needless socializing, does not drink and does not smoke.

‘It is never about the money for me,’ he responds. ‘That has never motivated me. I don’t care about being a millionaire or cashing out. I like running a channel where I am totally in control.’