His crisp signature line: Namaskar! Me Pradeep Bhide. Aajchya thalak batmya (Today’s headlines) on Mumbai Doordarshan Kendra in his easy familiar style resonated with generations of viewers.
5’8” Pradeep Bhide was a well-known news presenter on Marathi television. The exemplary voice artiste pioneered the art of reading bulletins and hosting shows. He shaped the Kendra’s newscast since its formative years, having joined in 1974 two years after the channel’s inception on 2 October 1972, well before its name was changed to DD Sahyadri and served it for more than 40 years.
A Science graduate, he did Journalism from the Ranade Institute of Communications and was always attracted to radio and television. Pradeep joined the Kendra as a trainee production assistant, and later selected as News Correspondent. Initially with the news translation department with the likes of illustrious colleagues like actress Smita Patil and Bhakti Barve, he began reporting at the age of 21.
A golden opportunity dawned when the then director of the Kendra, Shastri tasked him with presenting news, due to his impressive trademark voice and screen presence. DD gained popularity in the late 80s and 90s with television sets entering middle-class households and the state-run news channel was the only audio-visual format available for viewers.
His pleasant personality, dignified demeanour, baritone voice and clear pronunciation made him a hit. He was adept in written and spoken languages.
He belonged to the now eclipsed era of professional news anchors, with matter-of-fact, impartial intonation throughout the bulletin, voice dropping a little when bad news was conveyed, rising to smile briefly when good tidings came. He narrated news in an engaging style, provided analysis, anchored other special shows occasionally even covered outside assignments.
Pradeep never had a formal retirement. On 19 January 2017, when he arrived to read his last bulletin as a sign off, since his health was deteriorating, his humble, friendly manner awestruck his juniors, despite his celebrity status.
Born to teacher parents who taught Sanskrit, Marathi, and Hindi, and were frequently transferred, Pradeep was educated in five to six village schools in Maharashtra. Language traditions were encouraged at home from childhood. He used to study from textbooks and other non-academic literature, enabling him to develop his sense of sound and attain a clean and clear pronunciation. The fifteenth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, called Vishnu Sahasranama, was recited aloud every day, which according to him, helped a lot.
Pradeep started with Marathi theatre first. He also set up his own media company, Pradeep Bhide Communications. He voiced over 5,000 ad films, Films Division documentaries, short films, infomercials and promos and hosted up to 2000 programmes with luminaries. He also had brief stints with the media departments of MNCs.
He hosted the Pune Festival for seven-eight consecutive years from the first year and received its Best Announcer Award. Pradeep officiated at the swearing-in ceremony of the first ever Shiv Sena-BJP alliance at Shivaji Park in 1995; the swearing in of Devendra Fadnavis as the Chief Minister in 2014, some public functions of the President and the Prime Minister. He believed that to create and develop a good news reporter, a news reporter quality search competition should be held.
Pradeep died at 68 after a prolonged battle with brain cancer. His condition deteriorated to a stage where he could not recognize people anymore. He will always be remembered as one of the most dignified news personalities of Doordarshan, an inspiration to many aspiring journalists. It is the end of an era.
Bhide is survived by his wife, son, daughter and grandchildren.