23 Lesser Known Facts About Ravish Kumar, The Top Influential NDTV Journalist

Senior journalist Ravish Kumar is a well-known media personality as well as an author. He was awarded the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2019. The award is regarded as the Asian version of the Noble Prize. Ravish Kumar was among the five recipients who were declared winners of the award. The Ramon Magsaysay Award is Asia’s Premier Prize and highest honor and celebrates the greatness of spirit and transformative leadership in Asia.

Ravish Kumar was NDTV India’s senior executive editor and also one of India’s most influential TV journalists. He is known for “harnessing journalism to give voice to the voiceless”. He often reported the under-reported issues of the general public.

According to sources, Ravish Kumar resigned from NDTV on 30 November 2022. It was reported that via an internal mail within the channel it was announced that the resignation was effective immediately.

Here are a few lesser-known facts about Ravish Kumar, the ace journalist:

1. Ravish Kumar’s date of birth is 5 December 1974. He was born into a modest family in Jitvarpur village in East Champaran, Bihar.

2. Ravish Kumar family

His father’s name is Baliram Pandey and his brother is Brajesh Kumar Pandey. There is not much information about his mother.

3. Ravish Kumar’s educational qualification

Ravish completed his high school at Loyola High School, Patna. He moved to Delhi in 1990 for his higher education and did his bachelor’s and master’s in History from Deshbandhu College, University of Delhi.

4. Ravish was scared of English – speaking people when he came to Delhi

People who spoke English scared Ravish as he was not so good at the language. He even rented a Barsati in the bylanes of Govindpuri because of his terror of facing people from ”English- speaking zones”.

When enrolled in Deshbandhu College, his lecturers Anil Sethi and Rana Bahal acted as his mentors and encouraged and helped him in many ways. He says,

“They taught me English, how to eat at a table, how to talk to girls, how to wear a tie.”

5. Ravish started preparing for the Civil Services Examination but he couldn’t clear the examination

He did his MPhil from the University of Delhi. He enrolled in a post-graduate diploma in Hindi Journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication.

Before coming to Delhi the only ‘big’ cities Ravish had visited were Lucknow, Jamshedpur, and Ranikhet.

6. Ravish is very fond of brilliant Delhi University History Professor, the late Parthasarathi Gupta

During his Master’s in History at Delhi University, Ravish was influenced by his History professor whom his students affectionately called PSG.

7. Ravish Kumar wife and children

It was during his M.Phil studies that Ravish Kumar met his future wife who was studying at Indraprastha College in Delhi. Nayana is currently a history teacher at Lady Shriram College of Commerce.

Ravish and Nayana’s love story:

Before getting married, Ravish and Nayana dated for around seven years. In those days Ravish didn’t have enough money, so they used to go for long walks and visit coffee houses. But Ravish’s family blatantly objected to their marriage. Ravish is a Bhumihar Brahmin, an upper caste and Nayana belonged to a Bengali Community.

However, Ravish broke ties with his family for Nayana and got married to her. The couple has two beautiful daughters.

8. Ravish’s career as a journalist

He was employed by NDTV India from 1996 to 2022, he worked his way up to be a senior reporter from a field reporter. Ravish resigned from NDTV on 30th November 2022.

9. Ravish was offered his own daily show, Prime Time with Ravish Kumar after NDTV launched NDTV India

NDTV India is a 24-hour Hindi-language news channel targeting the nation’s millions of native Hindi speakers. The citation suggests that Ravish Kumar Prime Time show is about “Striving for a people-based journalism”. He called his newsroom ‘the people’s newsroom’.

10. The shows hosted by Ravish Kumar were Prime Time, Hum Log, Ravish Ki Report, and Des Ki Baat

Most of his shows covered topics from socio-political issues.

Here is a video from Paharganj- Ravish ki report:

11. Ravish had political links as his brother Brajesh Kumar Pandey was a senior Congress leader

However, Brajesh had to quit Congress after his name was involved in a sex scandal.

12. Ravish is also an author and has published many books

Ravish’s self-developed skill includes his unique style of writing short stories like Laprek- Laghu Prem Katha. His books are titled A City Happens In Love (Ishq Mein Shahar Hona), Dekhate Rahiye, Bolna Hi Hai: Loktantra, Sanskriti Aur Rashtra Ke Bare Mein, and The Free Voice – On Democracy, Culture and The Nation.

13. Controversies

• When Ravish’s brother, Brajesh Kumar Pandey, was involved in a sex racket case back in 2017, Ravish Kumar was criticized by the public for not reporting the incident in his news shows.
• Ravish was also attacked for publicly criticizing Arnab Goswami.
• Ravish had to deal with death threats in the past for his journalism after the establishment of the Narendra Modi Government as he often complained about it.

14. Ravish loves listening to old songs and also used to run a personal blog- “naisadak-blogspot.com” on Twitter

15. After being trolled excessively on social media by online trolling mobs, Ravish quit Twitter in 2015

16. His favorite personalities

Kumar’s favorite teacher is the Late Parthasarthi Gupta (a History Professor at Delhi University). Amitabh Bachchan is his favorite actor and Kishore Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar, Mukesh, and Mohammed Aziz are his favorite singers.

17. Even after being a TV anchor, Ravish often quotes about not watching TV news, which is ironic

18. Ravish Kumar awards and recognitions

He has a list of awards in his name,

• In 2010, he was awarded the Ganesh Sankar Vidyarthi Award.
• In the same year, he received the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award for the Journalist of The Year
• In 2014, Indian News Television Award for the best news anchor in Hindi.
• In 2016, he was included in the 100 most influential Indians list by The Indian Express. He was named the best journalist of the year by Mumbai Press Club in the same year.
• For his contribution to the field of journalism, he was honored with the first Kuldip Nayar journalism award in 2017.
• Awarded Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2019 for “harnessing journalism to give voice to the voiceless”. Ravish became the fifth Indian Journalist to receive the Ramon Magsaysay Award. He was also awarded the first Gauri Lankesh National Journalism Award in Bengaluru on 22 September 2019.

19. A documentary was made on Ravish Kumar titled “Namaskar! Main Ravish Kumar” in Hindi which won the Amplify Voices Award at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival by the English name “While We Watched”

The feature-length Ravish Kumar movie has been made by filmmaker Vinay Shukla, and
it spans the broadcasting days of Ravish at NDTV.

20. The Screen Patti (TSP), a popular YouTube channel, ran a program named Rabish Ki Report

Actor Shivankit Singh Parihar portrayed the role of Ravish Kumar as “Raja Rabish Kumar”

21. Has Ravish Kumar left NDTV?

The Latest Ravish Kumar news is that he resigned from NDTV on 30 November 2022 after the channel’s founders and promoters Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy resigned from their positions as directors on the board of RRPR Holding Private Limited (RRPRH).

22. Ravish Kumar Net Worth is estimated to be Rs. 158 Crore in 2022 ($20 Million)

23. Mr. Ravish Kumar Assets

Ravish Kumar house: Throughout his hometown and in New Delhi, he has Real Estate properties.

Cars: Mr. Ravish is the owner of a number of cars from various international brands like Mercedes, BMW, etc. He is very passionate about cars.