Salma SultanScroll of Honour (New Delhi, India) 2012
SALMA SULTAN – Pitch perfect! Picture perfect!
Those were the earliest days of Doordarshan and the only other highlight on it was the Daily News and one day she found herself into the chair behind the News desk and lo and behold, TV had a new Newsreader – Salma Sultan!
If ever there can be a style-icon Newsreader, she was the one! Her big Bindi and that big Rose (in all seasons, miraculously) in her neatly done pleat are etched in the memories, to this day. The way she draped her neck with the border of her Saari became a style statement emulated by generations of Newsreaders after her. But ask her about it and she just laughs it off – ‘Actually, I didn’t have lots of blouses needed for all those Saaris I had to wear – hence, I devised this way to hide them!’
From 1967 to 1997, when she hung up her rose, her sway over the viewers didn’t slacken even once. Age, it seems, feared to touch her
But there can only be one Salma Sultan! Still ringing in our ears…‘Namaskar, Aaj ke Samaachaar Iss Prakaar Hain…’!