Reporters (Indian TV series)

Reporters
Genre	Newsroom drama
Created by	Rose Audio Visuals Pvt. Ltd.
Written by	Sammeer Arora Satyam Tripathi
Directed by	Goldie Behl
Creative director	Sheetal Kolvalkar
Starring	Kritika Kamra Rajeev Khandelwal
Country of origin	India
Original language	Hindi
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	132
Production
Producers	Goldie Behl Shrishti Arya
Production location	Mumbai
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Production company	Rose Audio Visuals Pvt. Ltd.
Original release
Network	Sony Entertainment Television
Release	13 April (2015-04-13) – 19 October 2015 (2015-10-19)

Reporters is an Indian newsroom drama television series very loosely based on The Newsroom (American TV series) that premiered on 13 April 2015 on Sony Entertainment Television (India) and Sony Entertainment Television Asia. The show stars Rajeev Khandelwal as Kabir and Kritika Kamra as Ananya, playing television reporters on the show. ^[1]

Producer Shristi Arya stated that after meeting a reporter she was inspired to make a show based on journalists' life. ^[2] The character of Kabir (Rajeev Khandelwal) is based on Rajdeep Sardesai and Arnab Goswami. ^[3]

Plot summary

Reporters is a story in a newsroom backdrop journalists Ananya Kashyap (Kritika Kamra) and Kabir Sharma ( Rajeev Khandelwal). Ananya is a junior reporter in KKN, the news channel she works for run by Malvika (Megha Chatterjee); the daughter of KL Prasad, the owner of KKN and his friend & partner Khalid (Bikramjeet Kanwarpal). Kabir after working for Delhi Kranti Newspaper, joins KKN as the Editor-in-Chief. Kabir's special news bulletins at 9 pm brings the show to number one in the ratings. Ananya also putting up her share in KKN's success due to her bright thinking and potential to be a good journalist.

Ananya carries an article that had been written many years ago by Kabir in which Kabir defends her father, Sudhir Kashyap, against accusations made about pharmaceutical company corruption. Because of Kabir, Ananya decided to become a journalist. Ananya and her family are still in a hope that someday they'll meet her father, who had suddenly disappeared after he was released on bail. After the success party of KKN's achievement of number one in ratings, Ananya gets a call from a farmer-turned-gunman Baghi Madhavnath for an interview, which she wants to do, despite the dangers. Kabir also accompanies her, as this interview can be very useful for their channel(and he secretly also wants to protect her even though they both hate each other). They are abducted by Madhavnath and his gang .After a few episodes the Duo escape thanks to Kabir's quick thinking and skills and escape from the kidnappers, who chase them in the jungle. During the jungle episodes Ananya and Kabir shares good time with each other. Later she tell Kabir about her father's story making Kabir realise that she is daughter of Sudhir Kashyap. But Kabir deliberately enacts that he doesn't remember her father. The run and chase drama finally ends.

The police finally capture Baghi Madhavnath and his accomplices, and Ananya and Kabir make it to KKN Studio, where they do a joint interview on one of Madhavnath's hench men who helped them escape from the jungle, after realising how wrong he was about them. Kabir and Ananya finally become friends, with both falling in love with each other without even realising. Ananya also ask for Kabir's help to find the real culprits behind conspiracy against her father. Later Kabir returns Ananya her father's wallet stating that her father committed suicide. Knowing about her father's demise Ananya's best friend Ronnie (Puru Chibber) who secretly loves Ananya consoles her and her family in their grief. Seeing this Kabir turns jealous and drinks alcohol who had quitted drinking long back.

In same intoxicated condition he reads the news bulletin and returns to Ananya's home and seeing Ronnie again with her family he drives back home. While driving back he gets in an accident. When Kabir is in hospital Ananya spots Kabir having good time with Tarini, about whom world talks about being his mistress but are actually very good friends. This leads to misunderstanding between Kabir and Ananya and their fights and misunderstandings continue for a while. At the same time Ronnie proposes Ananya and Ananya politely say no to him stating she just considered him as her best friend. This upsets Ronnie and stops talking to Ananya. Taking advantage of these situations, Malvika plots to remove Ananya from KKN offering her a job in Mumbai with higher raise and post of senior reporter through her friend of Mumbai's news channel. Wanting to stay away from Kabir and their fights and also stop upsetting Ronnie, Ananya decides to grab the job and resigns from KKN. Knowing this Ronnie resolves his issues with Ananya and they become friends again but this doesn't stop Ananya from leaving KKN. Knowing how much Kabir and Ananya actually love each other their another colleague Trisha insists Ananya to visit KKN office before she board her flight to receive a farewell and plans to reunite Kabir and Ananya by lying to her about farewell party, as there wasn't anyone supposed to be in office as everyone had gone for a summit which Kabir didn't attend. Kabir and Ananya being alone in office, Kabir proposes to Ananya and opens his heart in front of her, after which they share a kiss.

Ananya and Kabir finally realize their love for each other and are brought together and no.of romantic instances start to take place. But then Malvika is not happy about this. She steals the video chip about arms and ammunition smuggling and makes Kabir believe that it was lost due to Ananya's carelessness. Kabir shouts at Ananya in front of every body at office. Kabir goes to drop Ananya and after a brief altercation, she fumes out of the car, during the office hours the cold war continues between the two. To apologize to her, on the insistence of Tarini, Kabir goes to her house and ends up telling Ananya's mother about their relationship, who is now upset; but when Kabir explains her about them she agrees happily. Kabir asks Ananya out on a dinner date and they spend a wonderful and a romantic night together. Meanwhile, at KKN he's offered to be a 2% shareholder but with a 3-year lock-in period.

Kabir accepts it after Ananya urges him to and Khalid is relieved. The new Business-Head shows up after the merger deal is closed and everyone is stunned to see that it's Shreya (Ankita Bhargava), Ex-Mrs. Kabir Sharma. Kabir sees through all the trickery and accuses Khalid and KL of conspiring against him to force him to stay. Shreya claims to have joined for purely professional reasons. Although in the beginning Shreya is sweet and polite, especially with Ananya, Kabir doesn't believe her. Disturbed with her presence Kabir decides to tell Ananya truth about his married life with Shreya. Kabir reveals that he had initially written about a scam at Shreya's office to which Shreya tries to resolve this matter cleverly and challenging her friends that she would make Kabir bow down to her who is all about his self-respect and principles. Shreya belonged to a rich family and Kabir at that time didn't even owned a home and stayed on rent. They both keep meeting again and again regarding work and fall in love and get hitched. Soon after Shreya starts showing her true colours by time to time insulting Kabir in front of her friends about his poor financial status. One day he gets to know about her challenge while at a party with Shreya and her friends. Devastated he lands on Tarini's doorstep who is his intern and a good friend. But in a flow of emotions they both end up spending whole night together crossing all limits of marriage which puts Kabir under guilt for cheating on Shreya and he confesses to her. Seeking this opportunity which she was waiting for Shreya divorces Kabir for being unfaithful to her and defames him and Tarini. Kabir feels responsible for destroying Tarini's life and career and starts supporting her (by making her his stringer) and her younger brother Anurag for their living. Ananya very maturely understands Kabir's side and accepts his love and promises to be with him forever. Meanwhile, Shreya also narrates their marriage story to Ananya's mother but altering few details and keeping Kabir at fault and poisoning her mind that Kabir was always hesitant to commit to her. To which Ananya's mother questions Kabir and ask him to get engaged with Ananya if he truly loves her which he accepts. It is revealed that Shreya is lonely so she came back to India to again continue her lost relationship with Kabir. But by this time Kabir had moved on with Ananya. Shreya teams up with Maanav luring him for the position of Co-Editor-in-chief.

Just a day before their engagement bomb scare incidents occurs in which a bomb jacket is tied to Ananya and is aired live on news channel. Seeing Kabir standing strong by her side even in time of death, Ananya's mother realises her mistake of not trusting Kabir. After the bomb is defused, the next day Ananya and Kabir get engaged with happy consent of her mother. Shreya also lands up in their engagement realising that Ananya is Sudhir Kashyap's daughter and knowing truth about her father.Soon Malvika resigns (for personal development).

It is later revealed that RG was responsible for Ananya's father's death and Kabir all the while knew truth about Ananya's father's death, to which she breaks her engagement with Kabir. Kabir had hidden this truth fearing for life of his brother Rajveer's son who had once been kidnapped by RG forcing Kabir to unfollow this case. RG and Shreya team up to kill Ananya and Kabir. In all this conspiracy Ronnie gets killed instead and Maanav realizes that this game is way more dangerous and gets scared. It is later revealed after investigation by Kabir and his colleagues and his stringer, that Shreya suffered from split Bipolar disorder and is still on its medication, which is revealed to the world and Shreya is fired from KKN. With the help of Maanav, Kabir gets sting operation done on Shreya and RG and truth is revealed to the world about conspiracy against Sudhir Kashyap and served justice. Finally Kabir and Ananya accept their love for each other and lead a happy life.

Cast

Main cast

• Rajeev Khandelwal as Kabir Sharma ^{[4] [5]}
• Kritika Kamra as Ananya Kashyap ^{[6] [7]}
• Ankita Bhargava as Shreya Bhagat ^{[8] [9]}
• Bikramjeet Kanwarpal as Khalid
• Sunny Hinduja as Manav Gupta
• Parvinder Singh Prince as Sunny Gill
• Aakash Pandey as Tinu Sharma
• Nikhil Sabharwal as Rohan Singhania
• Megha Chatterjee as Malvika Prasad
• Shivangi Verma as Richa Lakhani ^[10]
• Divyangana Jain as Baby Malhotra ^[11]

Recurring cast

• Pyumori Mehta Ghosh as Mrs. Kashyap, Ananya's mother
• Alam Khan as Armaan Kashyap
• Shivani Manchanda as Ritu Sharma
• Alefia Kapadia as Tarini ^[12]

Former cast

• Khushboo Purohit as Trisha Rajput
• Puru Chibber as Ronnie Singh ^{[13] [14]}

Santosh ojha (ftii pass-out)as Inspector Khurana

Reception

Rajyasree Sen of Firstpost reviewed negatively saying, "Instead of pretending to be "hard-hitting", maybe it would be wiser for TV producers to stick to what they're good at – emotional family dramas that strike a deadly balance between sexism and over-acting." ^[15] Daily News and Analysis rated it 3/5 and summarized it as, "Definitely a change from the routine fare on TV, but needs to focus more on news gathering rather than breaking news." ^[16] Indian Express rated 2/5 saying, "Reporters is all rattling bones with no flesh to sink one's teeth into." ^[17]

References

1. "Rajeev Khandelwal and Kritika Kamra turn 'Reporters'". Indian Express. 14 April 2015.
2. "My shows are bold in thought, says 'Reporters' producer Shristi Arya". Daily News and Analysis . 13 April 2015.
3. "My character in 'Reporters' is an amalgamation of Rajdeep Sardesai and Arnab Goswami: Rajeev Khandelwal". Daily News and Analysis . 13 April 2015.
4. "Rajeev Khandelwal: Was not sceptical about kissing scene on 'Reporters'". The Times of India. Retrieved 23 April 2016.
5. "Rajeev Khandelwal: I don't relish success if I haven't earned it". The Times of India. Retrieved 23 April 2016.
6. "Kritika Kamra: I don't enjoy saas-bahu dramas". The Times of India. Retrieved 23 April 2016.
7. "Kritika Kamra: I'm not a damsel in distress, but a strong, opinionated woman". The Times of India. Retrieved 23 April 2016.
8. "Ankita to play Rajeev Khandelwal's ex-wife". The Times of India. Retrieved 23 April 2016.
9. "Ankita Bhargava enters 'Reporters'". The Times of India. Retrieved 23 April 2016.
10. "Ripudaman Handa's girlfriend in Sony TV's 'Reporters'". The Times of India. Retrieved 23 April 2016.
11. "Divyangana Jain Makes An Entry On Reporters". The Hans India. 4 July 2015. Retrieved 23 April 2016.
12. "Alefia Kapadia to be seen in 'Reporters'". The Times of India. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
13. "Puru Chibber bags new TV show". The Indian Express. 17 March 2015. Retrieved 23 April 2016.
14. "I've become good friends with Kritika Kamra: Puru Chibbar". Zee News. Archived from the original on 21 September 2016. Retrieved 23 April 2016.
15. Rajyasree Sen (15 April 2015). "Reporters Review: Someone send Rajeev Khandelwal's serial DVDs of the Newsroom". Firstpost .
16. "'Reporters' Review: The desi newsroom". 20 April 2015.
17. "Sony TV's 'Reporters' is all rattling bones with no flesh to sink one's teeth into". Indian Express . 24 April 2015.

External links

• Official Website
• YouTube