20 Facts About Prannoy Roy

Prannoy Roy is the former executive co-chairperson of NDTV and one of its co-founders, along with his wife Radhika Roy.

Prannoy Lal Roy was born in Calcutta, West Bengal on 15 October 1949, to P L "Hurricane" Roy, a Bengali executive at a multinational corporation in the city.

Prannoy Roy attended La Martiniere Calcutta and The Doon School, the private boys' boarding school in Dehradun, Uttar Pradesh.

Prannoy Roy was at the boarding school during his teenage years when he met Radhika Das, whom he would later marry.

Prannoy Roy had received a Haileybury and Imperial Service College scholarship to acquire the A-level higher secondary certificate.

Prannoy Roy then became a certified chartered accountant and a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales in 1975.

In India, Prannoy Roy continued his studies at the Delhi School of Economics from where he attained a PhD in agricultural economics in 1978.

Prannoy Roy is described to have been passionate about election results since his childhood and had produced his first election forecast for the 1977 Indian general election.

The collaboration produced three book and Prannoy Roy became an election analysts for the India Today magazine.

Prannoy Roy is credited for pioneering opinion polling in India between 1980 and 1995.

Radhika and Prannoy Roy are considered to be the co-founders of the company, however Prannoy states that Radhika was the original founder as he joined the company later.

Radhika Prannoy Roy was working as a journalist at The Indian Express and then at the India Today magazine before becoming the founder of NDTV.

Prannoy Roy began his career as a television journalist by covering the general election for Doordarshan.

Prannoy Roy was the news presenter for the NDTV bulletins and became the face of the NDTV brand in the process.

The Central Bureau of Investigation filed a number of cases against former officials of the public broadcaster including the director general and against Prannoy Roy who was the managing director of NDTV.

Radhika Roy who was the chairperson of the company became the managing director in 1998 and Prannoy Roy who was the managing director became the chairman.

Prannoy Roy went public in May 2004 and by the end of the year had the highest market capitalisation among media companies.

In 2019, Prannoy Roy collaborated with the psephologist Dorab Sopariwala and published a book called The Verdict: Decoding India's Elections.

Prannoy Roy moved to the Supreme Court of India which exempted them from the deposits.

Prannoy Roy won the Red Ink award by Mumbai Press Club for lifetime achievement for his consistent and pioneering contribution to news television and his service to journalism in 2015.