Vinod Dua

Vinod Dua's early upbringing was in the refugee colonies of Delhi. His family migrated from Dera Ismail Khan after the independence of India in 1947. In his school and college days, Vinod participated in a number of singing and debate events, and he also did theatres until the mid-1980s. Sutradhar Puppet of Sri Ram Center for Art and Culture performed two plays that were written by Vinod for the children. He was a member of a street theatre group, Theatre Union, which used to create and perform plays against the social issues like Dowry.

He graduated with a degree in English literature from Hans Raj College and obtained his master's degree in literature, both from the University of Delhi. In November 1974, Vinod made his first television appearance in Yuva Manch, a Hindi-language youth program which was aired on Doordarshan (formerly called as Delhi television).

Yuv Jan, a youth show for the youth of Raipur, Muzaffarpur, and Jaipur for Satellite Instructional Telecast Experiment (SITE), was anchored by Vinod in 1975. The same year, he began anchoring Jawan Tarang, a program for youth which was telecast on the newly commissioned Amritsar TV. He continued his job until 1980.

In 1981, he started anchoring Aap Ke Liye, a Sunday morning family magazine, which he kept doing until 1984. Vinod, along with Prannoy Roy, co-anchored the election analysis on Doordarshan in 1984. This gave his career a boost, as it bagged him the chance to anchor election analysis program for several other television channels.

He also anchored Janvani (People's Voice), a show where common people had got the opportunity to directly question the ministers, in 1985. This show was first of its kind. Vinod joined TV Today, a venture of India Today Group, as its chief producer in 1987.

To produce the shows based on current affairs, budget analysis, and documentary films, he launched his production company, The Communication Group, in 1988. Vinod anchored the show Chakravyuha, the channel Zee TV, in 1992. Between 1992 and 1996, he was the producer of a weekly current affairs magazine, Parakh, which was telecast on Doordarshan.

In 1996, he became the first electronic media journalist to be bestowed with the esteemed BD Goenka Award for excellence in the field of journalism. Vinod was an anchor for the show 'Tasveer-e-Hind, which was aired on Doordarshan's cerebral channel, DD3 Media. He served as an anchor for the channel between 1997 and 1998. In March 1998, Vinod anchored the Sony Entertainment Channel's show, 'Chunav Chunauti.

He was linked to the Sahara TV from the year 2000 to 2003, for which he used to anchor Pratidin. [3]

Vinod used to host the NDTV India's program, Zaika India Ka, for which he travelled across the cities; stopped by the highways, roads; tasted several dishes from the roadside dhabas.

He started anchoring Jan Gan Man Ki Baat for The Wire Hindi. The show is a 10-minute current affairs program which telecast on The Wire's website where he often took a critical of the government led Narendra Modi, but with the required facts and numbers.

In October 2017, Vinod Dua had lashed out at actor Akshay Kumar for passing a vulgar remark on his daughter, Mallika Dua, during the shoot of an episode of the comedy show, The Great Indian Laughter Challenge.[4][5] A year later, October 2018, India's award-winning film director Nishtha Jain, famous for Gulabi Gang, published a long Facebook post alleging Vinod Dua of harassment and passing a lewd sexual joke at her. Vinod Dua refuted the allegation and termed it as highly absurd and baseless. [6][7][8] [9]

• The first electronic media journalist awarded by esteemed Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award in 1996.[10]

• Awarded the Padma Shri in 2008.[11]

• In 2016, ITM University, Gwalior awarded him the D. Litt. “Honoris Causa” (an honorary degree in Doctor of Letters).

• In 2017, for his lifetime achievement in the field of journalism, Mumbai Press Club awarded him RedInk Award, which was presented by Devendra Fadnavis, former Chief Minister of Maharashtra.

• Duspecial.in - Vinod Dua, NDTV
• Vinod Dua's 'Jan ki Baat', The Wire
• Vinod Dua interviewed by G Sampath in The Hindu
• Vinod Dua Archives on TheWire.in