VJ Anjana, a commerce graduate, says she couldn’t find any balance in the world of profit and loss statements and decided to pursue something creative after serving a stint in a corporate firm. Joining Sun Music in 2008, she says she could quickly pick things up as she was always a good talker even when the cameras were off. “In the beginning, I used to host a show where a co-anchor and I would make prank calls. This required me to be spontaneous and mischievous on air and since I’m like that anyway, I found it easy.”
But it wasn’t always a bed of roses as things do go wrong when everything is live, she says. “There was one instance where I prank-called a father after his daughter suggested it. I called him on air and told him that his daughter wasn’t attending tuition classes. He told me that she had left for classes an hour ago and he started to get really worried. Mistaking me for the teacher, he asked me lot of questions and when I confessed I’d called from the TV show, he didn’t really take the joke and got quite upset on air.” She says that this was the best part of the job, the uncertainties that it presents, making it fun on a consistent basis. “Now I host celebrity interviews and also Vetti Peechu. It gives the anchor the opportunity to speak to celebrities like equals, which makes for good viewing. But in the gossip programme, we have to be doubly careful as it is all about being informative without hurting or offending anyone,” she says.
How does she handle unpredictable callers? “Oh, that’s a tactful exercise. Since we host prank call shows, callers too try to throw a few doosras at us. Once, a colleague had done a live show and then recorded another show for the next day in the same costume. A person called up and made fun of the anchor, saying he hadn’t taken a bath. Even costumes are such a challenge as we cannot afford to repeat our clothes or look boring.”
With many people getting into cinema through the TV medium, one wonders if people joined such shows to use them as a stepping-stone. “Yes, that is surely the case,” she agrees, “Many people join TV channels for the exposure it offers. It’s a great place to make contacts and even filmmakers spot talent on TV. The spontaneity and how an experienced anchor can improvise situations can be valuable in cinema too.”
