BIKRAM RAI
When acclaimed Indian TV journalist Smita Sharma spoke to former Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai in Nepali, it was his wife Hisila Yami who was most surprised. Smita had gone to Baluwatar to interview Bhattarai and still remembers the look on Yami’s face when she explained her Nepal connection.
Smita’s grandparents, originally from Syangja , had to move to India because they were an inter-caste couple.
Their marriage wasn’t accepted by the society,” says Smita, who is now in charge of foreign affairs at TV Today Network, one of India’s leading news television networks.
Growing up with her family in a small town in West Bengal where the Sharmas were based, Smita always dreamt of moving to the big city. She says journalism attracted her because of its vast domain, story telling opportunities and the right to question.
Smita began her career in 2003 as a junior correspondent for Doordarshan, the Indian public broadcaster but, it was anchoring for a youth talk show for another news channel that made her a tv celebrity in the Indian media.
“Many people in small cities across India remember me from that program," says Smita who studied English and has a PG diploma in Mass Communication from Jadavpur University, Kolkata. She also topped her batch while studying Broadcasting Journalism at Indian Institute of Mass Communication in New Delhi.
In an industry where sensational journalism is so widespread, Smita has carved a niche for hard-hitting live coverage of world events. Whether it is Syria, protests in Bangladesh or elections in Pakistan, Smita has been on the scene to report it all live for viewers back home in India.
In 2013, she received the prestigious Ramnath Goenka Excellence Award in Journalism for her reportage on Kashmir Valley uprising in 2010. Smita has reported for both the Hindi and English channels of Network 18, where she has been working since 2005.
A simple google search is enough to yield an impressive list of her work on domestic as well as foreign affairs. Smita’s report on Badrinath floods last year and her interview with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi earlier this year top most searches.
“Journalism is a profession of perseverance and diligence,” says Smita, who considers the sensational news stories in Indian news channels just competition for eyeballs.
Smita was in Kathmandu to cover the SAARC Summit and her moderation in the ‘India Today Global Round Table’ during the summit was well received.
“For SAARC to work it is imperative that India and Pakistan resolve their differences,” says Smita, adding that the luke-warm relations between the two countries was evident in the Kathmandu symposium as well. She is a bit more positive about Nepal-India relations: “Considering PM Modi’s tendency to keep everything under control, the Nepal-India ties will be dealt at a political level rather than through security agencies.”
Smita’s book Travelogue in Pakistan is set to be released.
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