Television
Engaging host

Anjali Rao: Anchor with a difference

Though the reigning queen of Indian television Ekta Kapoor revealed more than she ever has about her aspirations in her recent interview on CNN International, the focus of viewer attention was host Anjali Rao, who engaged the young TV tycoon in a lively chat.

Not many know that the Hong Kong-born Anjali joined CNN a little over a year ago and has a degree in sociology and media studies from London’s City University.

Ever since she joined CNN over a year ago, Anjali has been co-anchoring prime-time evening news and business show World News Asia, live from Hong Kong. She also hosts Talk Asia, the half-hour chat show that features interviews with leading figures.

Over the years Anjali has covered major news stories including the 9/11, tsunami, aftermath of the Bali bombings, the Iraq war and the South Asian earthquake. But it has taken an interview with the soap queen for the bubbly host to get noticed in India.

Is Smriti Irani tiring of playing her character Tulsi — the country’s most famous bahu? No, says Smriti, she is only trying to do something different. So you can safely surmise that any dissimilarities between Viruddh and Balaji soaps are purely conscious.

In Viruddh (at 9.30 p.m. on Sony Entertainment Television), produced by Smriti herself, she plays Vasudha, a daughter torn between a manipulative father whom she worships and the man she loves. Her father is a power-hungry media baron who controls opinions and draws influence from his political connections.

Vasudha assists him in his newspaper business but she is in love and wants to marry Sushant, the newspaper’s star chief editor. And that is the root of the clash.

"In Kyunki I play a tradition-bound Indian bahu but in Viruddh I play a contemporary, educated, corporate woman. The difference is striking." Indeed, it is. In fact, it is so striking that it looks as if Smriti deliberately wanted to steer clear of any similarities. Comparisons, after all, can be odious.

In March of 2003 one man’s journey from China’s Guandong Province to Hong Kong’s Metropole Hotel triggers a deadly chain of events. He chillingly checks into room No. 911 and is soon found to be suffering from a rare virus that has not yet been defined.

Killer In Room 911 on April 8 at 8 p.m. on Nat Geo shows that even as the virus rapidly starts spreading across continents, doctors suspect what they are seeing is not "a typical virus — it is something much more than that. Hospitals attempting to treat the patients become breeding grounds for the killer and doctors battling to save lives become victims.

Can investigators prevent this mystery virus from becoming a global pandemic? Maybe yes and maybe no. Indeed, the programme showcases that in our global village no one is safe. And no disease or virus is specific to one country or society. It can rapidly spread around the world with devastating results.

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