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Karan Thapar

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Karan Thapar (born 5 November 1955) is an Indian journalist, news presenter and interviewer working with The Wire. Thapar was associated with CNN-IBN and hosted The Devil's Advocate and The Last Word. Some of the celebrities he has interviewed include Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Narendra Modi and Shah Rukh Khan. He was also associated with India Today, hosted the shows To the Point and Nothing But The Truth and is doing an exclusive series of Interviews with The Wire on his show the Interview with Karan Thapar.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>The two faces of Mr. Modi</ref>

Early life and educationEdit

File:The Winslow Boy at The Doon School.jpg
Thapar (along with Kanti Bajpai) in a production of Terence Rattigan's The Winslow Boy at The Doon School in the late 1960s.

Karan Thapar is the youngest child of former Chief of the Army Staff General Pran Nath Thapar and Bimla Thapar. The late journalist Romesh Thapar was his cousin and Thapar is also a cousin to historian Romila Thapar.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Thapar is also related distantly to the family of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Nehru's niece, the writer Nayantara Sahgal, was married to Gautam Sahgal, brother of Bimla Thapar, his mother.<ref name="ThePrint">Template:Cite news</ref>

He is an alumnus of The Doon School in Dehradun and Stowe School in England. While at Doon, Thapar was the editor-in-chief of the school magazine The Doon School Weekly.<ref>History of the Weekly, The Doon School publications (2009) p.41</ref>

Thapar graduated with a degree in Economics and Political Philosophy from Pembroke College, Cambridge University in 1977.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In the same year, he was also President of the Cambridge Union.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> After which he obtained a doctorate in International Relations from St Antony's College, Oxford University.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

CareerEdit

He began his career in journalism with The Times in Lagos, Nigeria and later worked as their Lead Writer on the Indian subcontinent till 1981. In 1982 he joined London Weekend Television in the United Kingdom where he worked for the next 11 years. In London he was one of the co-presenters of Eastern Eye magazine program for South Asian minorities in UK.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He moved to India in 1991 and worked with The Hindustan Times Television Group, Home TV and United Television before setting up his own production house in August 2001, Infotainment Television, which makes programmes for amongst others BBC, Miroshka, Doordarshan and Channel News Asia.<ref name=InfoTel />

Thapar is noted for his aggressive interviews with leading politicians and celebrities.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> A few of his shows which have been much watched are Eyewitness, Tonight at 10, In Focus with Karan, Line of Fire, War of Words Devil's Advocate and The Last Word.<ref name="InfoTel" /> In 2004, Thapar famously interviewed late former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, J. Jayalalithaa. It ended with Jayalalithaa snapping at him and tossing the mic on the table, saying that "it wasn't a pleasure talking to you" and chose to leave with a "Namaste" not responding to his handshake.<ref>Template:Cite news </ref> In 2007, Thapar also famously interviewed current Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (then the Chief Minister of Gujarat). A few minutes after the interview started, Thapar asked a few questions regarding the Modi administrations' actions during the 2002 Gujarat riots. Modi abruptly stopped the interview just three minutes in<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> while saying "dosti bani rahe" (Hindustani for "Let the friendship be intact") which became a popular internet meme.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He later said that interviewing A. R. Rahman was the toughest in his career due to Rahman's shy nature.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2020–21, Thapar wrote a column As I see it in the daily newspaper The Asian Age. In August 2021, the management of The Asian Age objected to Thapar's regular column after he wrote about the '1947 Violence Against Jammu Muslims'. The violence against the Muslim residents of Jammu during the partition led to their mass displacement from the Jammu region. Thapar stopped writing for the column and said "The 1947 violence against Jammu's Muslims that unfolded over a period of three-four months in 1947 is well-documented and has been historically accounted for. It is something that no one can contest. So I gather that the owners are under enormous pressure, presumably from Mr. Modi and Mr. Shah."<ref name="Asian Age">Template:Cite news</ref>

As of 2021, he is doing the regular show The Interview with Karan Thapar after joining The Wire.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Asian Age" />

Awards and accoladesEdit

  • In 1995 Thapar won the Onida Pinnacle Award for Best Current Affairs Presenter for the programme, The Chat Show.<ref name=InfoTel>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

BooksEdit

  • Face To Face India - Conversations With Karan Thapar, Penguin, Template:ISBN
  • Sunday Sentiments, Wisdom Tree, Template:ISBN
  • More Salt Than Pepper - Dropping Anchor With Karan Thapar, HarperCollins, Template:ISBN
  • Devil's Advocate: The Untold Story, HarperCollins, Template:ISBN
  • As I Like It, Wisdom Tree, Template:ISBN
  • Hardtalk India

ReferencesEdit

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External linksEdit

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