Pratima Puri

Some Lesser Known Facts About Pratima Puri

• Pratima Puri was the first female Indian journalist to work at Doordarshan. In 1965, she created history when she was hired as the first newsreader at Doordarshan. She was an inspiration for many aspiring female journalists to join journalism.

• Pratima Puri belonged to a Gorkha family from Shimla.

• Pratima Puri started working at All India Radio in Shimla in 1958.

• Pratima Puri moved to Delhi to join Doordarshan in September 1965.

• She was the reader of the first-ever five minutes bulletin of Doordarshan.

• She interviewed the first man who travel to space, Yuri Gagarin.

  

• As per some sources, Pratima Puri was replaced by Salma Sultan, although in an interview, Salma Sultan said that she took the place of Gopal Kaul when he shaved his head to discontinue working as a newsreader at Doordarshan. ^[1]DD News

• Later in her career, she became a mentor for the new probationer readers at Doordarshan.

• There is a scene in the TV series “Rocket Boys” (2022) in which a character appeared as Pratima Puri.